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DODO’S DAUGHTER 



DODO’S 

DAUGHTER 

A SEQUEL TO DODO 


BY 

E. F. BENSON 

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NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 
1913 



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Copyright, 1913, by 
The Century Co. 

Published , July , 1Q13 


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DODO’S DAUGHTER 
























































































































































































































































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DUDO’S daughter 


CHAPTER I 

N ADINE WALDENECH’S bedroom was a large 
square apartment on the ground floor at her 
mother’s cottage at Meering in North Wales. It was 
rather a large cottage, for it was capable of holding 
about eighteen people, but Dodo was quite firm in the 
subject of its not being a house. In the days when it 
was built, forty years ago, this room of Nadine’s had 
been the smoking-room, but since everybody now 
smoked wherever he or she chose, which was mostly 
everywhere, just as they breathed or talked wherever 
they chose, Nadine with her admirable commonsense 
had argued uselessness of a special smoking-room, for 
she wanted it very much herself, and her mother had 
been quite convinced. It opened out of the drawing- 
room, and so was a convenient place for those who 
wished to drop in for a little more conversation after 
bed-time had been officially proclaimed. Bed-time, it 
may be remarked, was only officially proclaimed in 
order to get rid of bores, who then secluded them- 
selves in their tiresome chambers. 

The room at this period was completely black with 
3 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


4 

regard to the color of carpet and floor and walls and 
ceiling. That was Nadine’s last plan and since it 
was the last, of necessity, a very recent one. She had 
observed that when it was all white, people looked 
rather discolored, like mud on snow, whereas against a 
black background they seemed to be of gem-like 
brilliance. But since she always looked brilliant her- 
self, the new scheme was prompted by a wholly al- 
truistic motive. She liked her friends to look brilliant 
too, and she would have felt thus even if she had not 
been brilliant herself, for out of a strangely com- 
pounded nature, anything akin to jealousy had been 
certainly omitted. There had been a good many 
friends in her bedroom lately, and there were a cer- 
tain number here to-night. She expected more. 
Collectively they constituted that which was known as 
the clan. 

The bed was an enormous four-poster with mahog- 
any columns at the corners of it. At present it was 
occupied by only three people. She herself lay on the 
right of it with her head on the pillow. She had 
already taken off her dinner-dress when her first 
visitor arrived, and had on a remarkable dressing- 
gown of Oriental silk, which looked like a family of 
intoxicated rainbows and, leaving her arms bare, came 
down to her feet, so that only the tips of her pink 
satin shoes peeped out. In the middle of the bed was 
lying Esther Sturgis, and across it at the foot Bertie 
Arbuthnot the younger, who was twenty-one years 
old and about the same number of feet in height. In 
consequence his head dangled over one side like a 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 5 

tired and sunburnt lily, and his feet over the other. 
He and his hostess were both smoking cigarettes as 
if against time, the ash of which they flicked upon the 
floor, relighting fresh ones from a silver box that lay 
about the center of the bed. They neither of them 
had the slightest idea what happened to the smoked- 
out ends. Esther Sturgis on the other hand was oc- 
casionally sipping hot camomile tea. What she did 
not sip she spilt. 

“ Heredity is such nonsense,” said Nadine crisply, 
speaking with that precision which the English-born 
never quite attain. “ Look at me, for instance, and 
how nice I am, then look at Mama and Daddy.” 

Esther spilt a larger quantity of camomile tea than 
usual. 

“You shan’t say a word against Aunt Dodo,” she 
said. 

“ My dear, I am not proposing to. Mama is the 
biggest duck that ever happened. But I don’t inherit. 
She had such a lot of hearts — it sounds like bridge 
— but she had, and here am I without one. First of 
all she married poor step-papa — is it step-papa? — 
anyhow the Lord Chester ford whom she married 
before she married Daddy. That is one heart, but I 
think that was only a little one, a heartlet.” 

“Rhyme with tartlet,” said Bertie, as if announc- 
ing a great truth. 

“ But we are not making rhymes,” said Nadine 
severely. “ Then she married Daddy, which is an- 
other heart, and when she married him — of course 
you know she ran away with him at top-speed — she 


6 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


was engaged to the other Lord Chesterford, who suc- 
ceeded the first.” 

“ Oh, ‘ Jack the Ripper/ ” said Esther. 

Bertie raised his head a little. 

“Who?” he asked. 

“ Jack Chesterford, because he is such a ripper,” 
said Nadine. “ And he ’s coming here to-morrow. 
Is n’t it a thrill ? Mama has n’t seen him since — 
since she did n’t see him one day when he called, and 
found she had run away — ” 

“Did he rip anybody?” asked Bertie, who was 
famed for going on asking questions, until he com- 
pletely understood. 

“ No, donkey. You are thinking of some criminal. 
Mama was engaged to him, and she thought she 
could n’t — so she ripped — let her rip, is it not ? — 
and got married to Daddy instead. He was quite 
mad about darling Mama, but recovered very soon. 
He made a very bad recovery. Don’t interrupt, Berts : 
I was talking about heredity. Well, there ’s Mama, 
and Daddy, well, we all know what Daddy is, and let 
me tell you he is the best of the family, which is poor. 
He is a gentleman after all, whatever he has done. 
And he ’s done a lot. Indeed he has never had an idle 
moment, except when he was busy ! ” 

Esther gave a great sigh: she always sighed when 
she appreciated, and appreciation was the work of her 
life. She never got over the wonderfulness of Nadine 
and was in a perpetual state of deep-breathing. She 
admired Bertie too, and they used often to talk about 
getting engaged to each other some day, in a mild and 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


7 

sexless fashion. But they were neither of them in 
any hurry. 

“Aren’t your other people gentlemen?” he asked. 
“ I thought in Austria you were always all right if you 
quartered yourself into sixteen parts.” 

Nadine threw an almost unsmoked cigarette upon 
the floor with a huge show of impatience. 

“Of course one has the ordinary number of great- 
grandparents, else you would n’t be here at all,” she 
said, “ and you quarter anything you choose. Two 
quarterings of my great-grandfathers were hung and 
drawn apart from their quarterings. But really I 
don’t think you understand what I mean by gentle- 
men. I mean people who have brains, and who have 
tastes and who have fine perceptions. English people 
think they know the difference between the bourgeoisie 
and the aristocrats. How wrong they are! As if 
living in a castle like poor Esther’s parents had any- 
thing to do with it ! Look at some of your marquises 
— Esther darling, I don’t mean Lord Ayr — what 
cads! Your dukes? What Aunt Sallys! Always 
making the float-face, don’t you call it, the betise , the 
stupidity. Is that the aristocracy ? Great solemn 
Aunt Sallys and the rest brewers ! Show me an idea : 
show me a brain, show me somebody with the dis- 
tinction that thoughts and taste bring about. I do 
not want a mere busy prating monkey thinking it is a 
man. But I want people: somebody with a man or 
woman inside it. Ah! give me a grocer. That will 
do!” 

Bertie put down his head again. 


8 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ Let us be calm, ,, he said. “ I ’ll find you a grocer 
to-morrow.” 

Nadine laughed. She had a curiously unmelodious 
but wonderfully infectious laugh. People hearing it 
laughed too : they caught it. But there was no sound 
of silvery bells. She gave a sort of hiccup and then 
gurgled. 

“ I get too excited over such things,” she said. 
“And when I get excited I forget my English and 
talk execrably. I will be Calm again. I do not mean 
that a man is not a gentleman because he is stupid, 
but much more I do not mean that quarterings make 
him one. The whole idea is so obsolete, so Victorian, 
like the old mahogany sideboards. Who cares about 
a grandfather? What does a grandfather matter any 
more? They used to say ‘Move with the Times/ 
Now we move instead with the ‘ Daily Mail/ I am 
half foreign and yet I am much more English than 
you all. The world goes spinning on. If we do not 
wish to become obsolete we spin too. I hate the com- 
mon people, but I do not hate them because they have 
no grandfathers, but just because they are common. 
I hate quantities of your de Veres for the same reason. 
Their grandfathers make them no less common. But 
also I hate your sweet people, with blue eyes, of whom 
there are far too many. Put them in bottles like 
lollipops, and let them stick together with their own 
sugar.” 

There was a short silence. Bertie broke it. 

“ How old are you ? ” he asked. 

“ Going on twenty-two. I am as old as there is any 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


9 

need to be. There is only one person in the house 
younger than me, and that is darling Mama. She 
is twenty.” 

Esther gave another huge sigh. She appreciated 
Nadine very much, but she was not sure that she did 
not appreciate Aunt Dodo more. It may be remarked 
that there was no sort of consanguinity between them : 
the relationship was one of mere affection. She had 
a mother and Dodo must be the next nearest relative. 
Frankly, she would have liked to change the relation- 
ship between the two. And yet you could say things 
to an aunt who was n’t an aunt more freely than to a 
woman who happened to be your mother. Apart 
from natural love, Esther did not care for her mother. 
She would not, that is to say, have cared for her if 
she had been somebody else’s mother, and indeed there 
was very little reason to do so. She had a Roman 
nose and talked about the Norman Conquest, which in 
the view of her family was a very upstart affair. 
She had not a kind heart, but she had an immense 
coronet in her own right, and had married another. 
Indeed she had married another coronet twice: there 
was a positive triple crown on her head like the Pope. 
In other respects also she was like a Pope, and was 
infallible with almost indecent frequency. Nadine 
loved to refer to her as “ Holy Mother.” She felt 
herself perfectly capable of managing everybody’s 
affairs, and instead of being as broad as she was long, 
was as narrow as she was tall, and resembled an 
elderly guardsman. 

Her degenerate daughter finished her sigh. 


10 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ Go on about your horrible family,” she said to 
Nadine. “ I think it ’s so illustrious of you to see 
them as they are.” 

The door opened without any premonitory knock, 
and Tommy Freshfield entered with a large black 
cigar in his mouth. He was rather short, and had 
the misfortune to look extremely dissipated, whereas 
he was hopelessly, almost pathetically, incapable of 
anything approaching dissipation. He put down his 
bedroom candle and lay down on the bed next Esther 
Sturgis. 

“ Have you been comforting Hughie? ” she asked. 

“ Yes, until he went to play billiards with the Bish- 
dean. He used to be a bishop but subsequently became 
a dean. I think Aunt Dodo believes he is a bishop 
still. Lots of bishops do it now, he told me; it is 
the same as putting a carriage-horse out to grass: 
there is no work, but less corn. Hughie ’s coming up 
here when he ’s finished his game.” 

The appreciative Esther sat up. 

“ It ’s too wonderful of him,” she said. “ Nadine, 
Hugh is coming up here soon. Do be nice to him.” 

Nadine sat up also. 

“ Of course,” she said. “ Hughie has such tact, 
and I love him for it. Berts has none : he would sulk 
if I had just refused to marry him and very likely 
would not speak to me till next day.” 

“ You have n’t had the chance to refuse me yet,” 
remarked Berts. 

“ That is mere scoring for the sake of scoring, 
Berts darling,” said she. “ But Hugh — ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


ii 


“ O Nadine, I wish you would marry him,” said 
Esther. “ It would make you so gorgeously com- 
plete and golden. Did you refuse him absolutely? 
Or would you rather not talk about it?” 

Nadine turned a little sideways on the bed. 

“ No, we will not talk of it,” she said. “ What else 
were we saying? Ah, my family! Yes, it is a won- 
der that I am not a horror. Daddy is the pick of the 
bunch, but such a bunch, mon Dieu, such wild flowers ; 
and poor Daddy always gets a little drunk in the 
evening now; and to-night he was so more than a 
little. But he is such an original! Fancy his com- 
ing to stay with Mama here only a year after she 
divorced him. I think it is too sweet of her to let 
him come, and too sweet of him to suggest it. She 
is so remembering, too: she ordered him his partic- 
ular brandy, without which he is never comfortable, 
and it is most expensive, as well as being strong. 
Well, that’s Daddy: then there are my uncles: such 
histories. Uncle Josef murdered a groom (there is 
no doubt whatever about it) who tried to blackmail 
him. I think he was quite right; and I daresay the 
groom was quite right, but it is a horrible thing to 
blackmail ; it is a cleaner thing to kill. Then there is 
Uncle Anthony who ought to have been divorced like 
Daddy, but he was so mean and careful and sly that 
they could do nothing with him. There was never 
anything careful about Daddy.” 

She was ticking off these agreeable relations on her 
white fingers. 

“ Then Grandpapa Waldenach committed suicide,” 


\ 


12 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


she said, “ and Grandpapa Vane fell into a cauldron 
at his own iron-works and was utterly burnt. 
So ridiculous; they could not even bury him, there 
was nothing left, except the thick smoke, and they had 
to open the windows. Then the aunts. There was 
Aunt Lispeth who kept nothing but white rats in her 
house in Vienna, hundreds and hundreds there were, 
the place crawled with them. Daddy could not go 
near it: he was afraid of their not being real, whereas 
I was afraid because they were real. Then there is 
Aunt Eleanor who stole many of Daddy’s gold snuff- 
boxes and said the Emperor had given them her. Of 
course it was a long time before she was ever sus- 
pected, for she was always going to church when she 
was not stealing; she made quite a collection. Aunt 
Julia is more modern : she only cares about the music 
of Strauss and appendicitis.” 

Berts gave a sympathetic wriggle. 

“ I had appendicitis twice,” he said, “ which was 
enough, and I went to Electra once which was too 
much. How often did Aunt Julia have appendi- 
citis?” 

“ She never had it,” said Nadine. “ That is why 
she is so devoted to it, an ideal she never attains. It 
is about the only thing she has never had, and the rest 
fatigue her. But she always goes to the opera when- 
ever there is Strausspbecause she cannot sleep after- 
wards, and so lies awake and thinks about appendicitis. 
I go to the opera too, whenever there is not Strauss, 
in order to tfrink about Hugh.” 

“And then you refuse him?” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


13 

“ Yes, but we will not talk of it. There is noth- 
ing to explain. He is like that delicious ginger-beer 
I drank at dinner in stone bottles. You can’t explain ! 
It is ginger-beer. So is Hugh.” 

“ I had a bottle of it too,” said Bertie. “ More 
than one, I think. I hate wine. Wine is only fit for 
old women who want bucking up. There ’s an old 
man in the village at home who ’s ninety-five, and he 
never touched wine all his life.” 

“ That proves nothing,” said Nadine. “If he had 
drunk wine he might have been a hundred by now. 
But I like wine: perhaps I shall take after Daddy.” 

A long ash off Tommy Freshfield’s cigar here fell 
into Esther’s camomile tea. It fizzed agreeably as it 
was quenched, and she looked enquiringly into the 
glass. 

“ Oh, that ’s really dear of you, Tommy,” she said. 
“ I can’t drink any more. John always insists upon 
my taking a glass of it to go to bed with.” 

" Your brother John is a prig, perhaps the biggest,” 
said Nadine. 

Esther reached out across Tommy, who did not 
offer his assistance and put down her glass on the 
small table at the head of the bed. 

“ I hope there ’s no doubt of that,” she said. 
“John would be very much ugset if he thought he 
wasn’t considered a prig. He is a snob too, which 
is so frightfully Victorian, and thinks about lineage. 
Of course he takes after mother. I found him read- 
ing Debrett once.” 

“ Wh£t is that?” asked Nadine. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


i4 

“ Oh, a red book about peers and baronets,” .said 
Esther rather vaguely. “ You can look yourself up, 
and learn all about yourself, and see who you are.” 

“ Poor John ! ” said Nadine. “ He had his cam- 
omile tea brought into the drawing-room to-night 
while he was talking to the bishop about Gothic archi- 
tecture and the, well — the state of Piccadilly. He 
was asking if confirmation was found to have a great 
hold on the masses. The bishop did n’t seem to have 
the slightest idea.” 

“John would make that all right,” said his sister. 
“ He would tell him. Nadine, why does darling Aunt 
Dodo so often have a bishop staying with her? ” 

Nadine sighed. 

“Nobody really understands Mama except me,” 
she said. “ I thought perhaps you did, Esther, but 
it is clear you don’t. She is religious, that ’s why. 
Just as artistic people like artists in their house, so 
religious people like bishops. I don’t say that bishops 
are better than other people, any more than R.A.’s are 
finer artists, but they are recognized professionals. It 
is so : you may think I am laughing or mocking. • But 
I am not. Give me more pillow, and Berts, take your 
face a little further from my feet. Or I shall kick it, 
if I get excited again, without intending to, but it will 
hurt you just the same.” 

Bertie followed this counsel of commonsense. 

“ That seems a simple explanation,” he said. 

Esther frowned; she was not quite so well satis- 
fied. 

“ But is darling Aunt Dodo quite as religious when 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 15 

a bishop does n’t happen to be here ? ” she asked. “ I 
mean does she always have family prayers ? ” 

“ No, not always, nor do you go to your slums if 
there is anything very amusing elsewhere.” 

“ But what have they got to do with religion ? ” 
asked Bertie. 

“ Have n’t they something to do with it ? I 
thought they had. I know Esther looks good when 
she has been to the slums ; though of course, it ’s 
quite delicious of her to go. Still if it makes you 
feel good, it is n’t wholly unselfish. There is noth- 
ing so pleasant as feeling good. I felt good the day 
before yesterday. But after all there are exactly as 
many ways of being religious as there are people in 
the world. No one means quite the same. I feel 
religious if I drive home just at dawn after a ball 
when all the streets are clean and empty and pearl- 
colored. Darling Daddy feels religious when he 
doesn’t eat meat on Thursday or Friday, whichever 
it is, and he has his immediate reward because he has 
the most delicious things instead — truffles stuffed 
with mushrooms or mushrooms stuffed with truffles. 
Also he drinks a good deal of wine that day, because 
you may drink what you like, and he likes tremen- 
dously. He has a particular chef for the days of 
meager, who has to sit and think for six days like the 
creation, and then work instead.” 

Nadine gurgled again. 

“ I suppose I shock you all,” she said ; “ but Eng- 
lish people are so unexpected about getting shocked 
that it is no use being careful. But they don’t get 


i6 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


shocked at what they do or say themselves. What- 
ever they do themselves they know must be all right, 
and they take hands and sing ‘ Rule Britannia/ 
They are the enfant terrible of Europe. They put 
their big stupid feet into everything and when they 
have spoiled it all, so that nobody cares for it any 
longer, they ask why people are vexed with them! 
And then they go and play golf. I am getting very 
English myself. Except when I talk fast you would 
not know I was not English.” 

Esther, since her camomile tea was quite spoiled, 
took a cigarette instead, which she liked better. 

“ Well, darling, you know every now and then you 
are a shade foreign,” she said. “ Especially when 
you talk about nationalities. As a nation I believe 
you positively loathe us. But that does n’t matter. 
It ’s he and she who matter, not they.” 

Bertie had sat up at the mention of golf and was 
talking to Tommy. 

‘‘Yes, I won at the seventeenth,” he said. “I 
took it in three. Two smacks and one put.” 

“ Gosh,” said Tommy. 

“ I wish I had n’t mentioned that damned game,” 
said Nadine very distinctly. “ You will talk about 
golf now till morning.” 

“ Yes, but you need n’t. Go on about Daddy,” 
said Esther. 

“ Certainly he is more interesting than golf, and 
gets into just as many holes. He is a creature of 
Nature. He falls in love every year, when the 
hounds of spring — ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


1 7 


A chorus interrupted her. 

“ Are on winter’s traces, the mother of months — ” 

“ Oh, ripping ! ” said Bertie. 

“ Yes. How chic to have written that and to have 
lived at Putney,” said Nadine. “ Mama once took 
me to see Mr. Swinburne and told me to kiss his 
hand as soon as ever I got into the room. So when 
we got in, there was one little old man there, and I 
kissed his hand ; but it was not Mr. Swinburne at all, 
but somebody quite different.” 

Again the door opened, and a woman entered, tall, 
beautiful, vital. There was no mistaking her. The 
others had not been lacking in vitality before, but she 
brought in with her a far more abundant measure. 
She was forty-five, perhaps, but clearly her age was 
the last thing to be thought about with regard to 
her. You could as well wonder what was the age 
of a sunlit wave breaking on the shore, or of a 
wind that blew from the sea. Everybody sat up at 
once. 

“ Mama darling, come here,” said Nadine, “ and 
talk to us.” 

Princess Waldenech looked round her largely and 
brilliantly. 

“ I thought I should find you all here,” she said. 
“ Nadine dear, of course you know best, but is it 
usual for a girl to have two young gentlemen lying 
about with her on one bed? I suppose it must be, 
since you all do it. Are they all going to bed here? 
Have they brought their tooth-brushes and nighties? 
Berts, is that you, Berts? Really one can hardly see 


18 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

for the smoke, but after all this used to be the smok- 
ing-room, and I suppose it has formed the habit. 
Berts, you fiend, you made me laugh at dinner just 
when Bishop Spenser was telling me about the crisis 
of faith he went through when he was a young man 
so that he nearly became a Buddhist instead of a 
bishop. Or do Buddhists have bishops, too ? Was n’t 
it dreadful ? He ’s a dear, and he gives all his money 
away to endow other bishops, both black and white — 
like chess. Of course he is n’t a bishop any more, but 
only a dean, but he keeps his Bible like one. Hugh 
is playing billiards with him now, and told me in a 
whisper that he marked three for every cannon he 
made. Of course Hughie couldn’t tell him it only 
counted two. It would have seemed unkind. Hugh 
has such tact.” 

“What I was saying,” said Nadine. “Mama, he 
proposed to me again this evening, and I said ‘ no ’ as 
usual. Is he depressed ? ” 

“ No, dear, not in the least except about the can- 
nons. Probably you will say ‘yes,’ sometime. And 
I want a cigarette and something to drink, and to be 
amused for exactly half an hour, when I shall take 
myself to pieces and go to bed. I hate going to bed 
and it adds to the depression to know that I shall have 
to get up again. If only I could be a Christian 
Scientist I should know that there is no such thing as 
a bed, and that therefore you can’t go there. On the 
other hand that would be fatiguing I suppose.” 

Tommy gave her a cigarette, and Nadine fetched 
her mother her bedroom bottle of water out of which 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


19 

she drank freely, having refused camomile tea with 
cigar ash in it. 

“Too delicious !” she said. “Nadine darling, do 
marry Hugh before you are twenty-two. Nowadays 
if girls don’t marry before that they take a flat or 
something and read at the British Museum till they 
are thirty and have got spectacles, without even get- 
ting compromised — ” 

“Compromised? Of course not,” cried Nadine. 
“ You can’t get compromised now. There is no such 
thing as compromise. We die in the ditch sooner, 
like poor Lord Halsbury. Being compromised was 
purely a Victorian sort of decoration like — like 
crinolines. Oh, do tell us about those delicious Vic- 
torian days about 1890 when you were a girl and 
people thought you fast and were shocked.” 

“ My dear, you would n’t believe it,” said Dodo ; 
“ you would think I was describing what happened 
in Noah’s Ark. Bertie and Tommy, for instance, 
would never have been allowed to come and lie on 
your bed.” 

“ Oh, why not ? ” asked Esther. 

“ Because you and Nadine are girls and they are 
boys. That sounds simple nonsense, does n’t it ? 
Also because to a certain extent boys and girls then 
did as older people told them to, and older people 
would have told them to go away. You see we used 
to listen to older people because they were older; 
now you don’t listen to them, for identically the same 
reason. We thought they were bores and obeyed 
them; you are perfectly sweet to them, but they have 


20 4 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

learned never to tell you to do anything. You would 
never do what I told you, dear, unless you wanted 
to.” 

“No, Mama, I suppose not. But I always do 
what you tell me, as it is, because you always tell me 
to do exactly what I want to.” 

Dodo laughed. 

“ Yes, that is just what education means now. 
And how nicely we get along. Nobody is shocked 
now, in consequence, which is much better for them. 
You can die of shock, so doctors say, without any 
other injury at all. So it is clearly wise not to be 
shocked. I was shocked once, when I was eight 
years old, because I was taken to the dentist without 
being told. I was told that I was to go for an ordi- 
nary walk with my sister Maud. And then, before 
I knew where I was, there was my mouth open as 
far as my uvula, and a dreadful man with a mirror 
and pincers was looking at my teeth. I lost my trust 
in human honor, which I have since then regained. 
I think Maud was more shocked than me. I think 
it conduced to her death. You didn’t remember 
Auntie Maud, Nadine, did you? You were so little 
and she was so unrememberable. Yes; a quantity of 
worsted work. But that ’s why I always want the 
bishop to come whenever he can.” 

“ I don’t see why, even now,” said Nadine. 

“ Darling, are n’t you rather slow ? Bishop 
Spenser, you know, who was Auntie Maud’s husband. 
Surely you’ve heard me call him Algie. Who ever 
called a bishop by his Christian name unless he was a 


21 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 

relation? Maud knew him when he was a curate. 
She fluffed herself up in him, just as she used to do 
in her worsted, and nobody ever saw her any more. 
But I loved Maud, and I don’t think she ever knew 
it. Some people don’t know you love them unless 
you tell them so, and it is so silly to tell your sister 
that you love her. I never say I love you, either, and 
I don’t say I love Esther, and that silly Berts, and 
serious Tommy. But what ’s the use of you all un- 
less you know it? Nadine, ring the bell, please. It 
all looks as if we were going to talk, and I had no 
dinner to speak of, because I was being anxious about 
Daddy. I thought he was going to talk Hungarian ; 
he looked as if he was, and so I got anxious, because 
he only talks Hungarian when he is what people call 
very much on. Certainly he was n’t off to-night ; he 
is off to-morrow. And so I want food. If I am 
being anxious I want food immediately afterwards, 
as soon as the anxiety is removed. At least I sup- 
pose Daddy has gone to bed. You have n’t got him 
here, have you? Fancy me being as old as any two 
of you. You are all so delightful, that you must n’t 
put me on the shelf yet. But just think! I was nice 
the other day to Berts’ sister, and she told her mother 
she had got a new friend, who was quite old. 4 Not 
so old as Grannie,’ she said, 4 but quite old ! ’ And 
all the time I thought we were being girls together. 
At least I thought I was; I thought she was rather 
middle-aged. How is your mother, Berts ? She 
does n’t approve of me, but I hope she is quite well.” 

Bertie also was a nephew by affection. 


22 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ Aunt Dodo,” he said, “ I think mother is too silly 
for anything.” 

“ I knew something was coming,” said Dodo ; 
“ what ’s she done now ? ” 

“Well, it is. She said she thought you were 
heartless.” 

“ Silly ass,” said Esther. “ Go on, Berts.” 

Berts felt goaded. 

“ Of course mother is a silly ass,” he said. " It ’s 
no use telling me that. Your mother is a silly ass, 
too, with her coronets and all that sort of fudge. 
But altogether there is very little to be said for people 
over forty, except Aunt Dodo.” 

“ Beloved Berts,” remarked Dodo. “ Go on about 
Edith.” 

“ But it is so. They ’re all antiques except you, 
battered antiques. Let ’s talk about mothers gener- 
ally. Look at Esther’s mother. She does n’t want 
me to marry Esther because my father is only an 
ordinary Mister. There ’s a reason ! And I don’t 
want to marry Esther because her mother is a 
marchioness. After all, mine has done more than 
hers, who never did anything except cut William the 
Conqueror when he came over, and tell him he was 
of very poor, new family. But my mother wrote 
the ‘ Dods Symphony ’ for instance. She ’s some- 
thing; she was Edith Staines, and when she has her 
songs sung at the Queen’s Hall, she goes and con- 
ducts them.” 

“ Bertie, in a short skirt and boots with enormous 
nails,” said Esther. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


23 

“And why not? She may be a silly ass in some 
things, but she ’s done something.” 

Bertie uncoiled all his yards of height and stood 
up. 

“ You began,” he said. “ I ’m only answering you 
back. Lady Ayr has never done anything at all ex- 
cept talk about her family. She does n’t think about 
anything but family : she ’s the most antiquated and 
absurd type of snob there is. And your ridiculous 
brother John is exactly the same. You ’re the most 
awful family, and make one long for grocers, like 
Nadine.” 

“ Darling, what do you want a grocer for ? ” asked 
Dodo. 

But Berts had not finished yet. 

“ And as for your brother Seymour, all that can 
be said about him is that he is a perfect lady,” he 
said, “ but he ought to have been drowned when he 
was a girl, like a kitten.” 

Esther shouted with laughter. 

“ Oh, Berts, I wish you would be roused oftener,” 
she said ; “ I absolutely adore you when you are 
roused. But you aren’t quite right about Seymour. 
He is n’t a lady any more than he ’s a gentleman. 
And after all he has got a brain, a real brain.” 

“Well, it takes all sorts to make a world,” said 
Dodo, “ and, Esther dear, I ’m often extremely grate- 
ful to Seymour. He will always come to dinner at 
the very last moment — ” 

“ That ’s because nobody else ever asks him,” said 
Bertie, still fizzing and spouting a little. “ That ’s 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


24 

one of the objections to marrying you, Esther, you 
will always be letting him come to dinner.” 

“ Be quiet, Berts. As I say, he never minds how 
late he is asked, and he invariably makes himself 
charming to the oldest and plainest woman present. 
Here, for instance, he would be making himself 
pleasant to me.” 

“ Poor chap ! ” said Berts, lighting another ciga- 
rette, and lying down again. 

A tray with some cold ham, a plate of straw- 
berries, and a small jug of iced lemonade which had 
been ordered by Nadine for her mother was here 
brought in by a perfectly impassive footman, and 
placed on the bed between her and Nadine. No 
servants in Dodo’s house ever felt the smallest sur- 
prise at anything which was demanded of them, and 
if Nadine had at this moment asked him to wash her 
face, he would probably have merely said, “ Hot or 
cold water, miss ? ” 

Nadine had not contributed anything to this dis- 
cussion on Seymour, because she was almost incon- 
veniently aware that she did not know what she 
thought about him. Certainly he had brains, and 
for brains she had an enormous respect. 

“ Seeing things to eat always makes me feel hun- 
gry,” said Nadine, absently taking strawberries, “ just 
as the sight of a bed makes me very wide-awake. It 
is called suggestion. Really the chief use of going to 
bed is that you are alone and have time to think.” 

“ And that is so exhausting that I instantly go to 
sleep,” remarked Tommy. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


25 

“You get — how do you call it — into training, if 
you practise, Tommy,” said Nadine. “ People 
imagine that because they have a brain they can think. 
It is n’t so : you have to learn to think. You have a 
tongue, but you must learn to talk : you have arms and 
yet you must learn how to play your foolish golf.” 

“ You don’t learn it, darling,” said Dodo. 

“ Mama, you are eating ham and have not been 
following. Really it is so. Most people can’t think. 
Esther can’t: she confesses it.” 

“ It ’s quite true,” said Esther. “ I felt full of ideas 
this morning, and so I went away all alone along the 
beach to think them out. But I could n’t. There 
were my ideas all right, and that was all. I could n’t 
think about them. There they were, ideas : just that, 
framed and glazed.” 

Tommy rose. 

“ I ’m worse than that,” he said. “ I never have 
any ideas. In some ways it ’s an advantage, because 
if we all had ideas, I suppose we should want to ex- 
press them. As it is I am at leisure to listen.” 

Dodo took a long draught of lemonade. 

“ I have one idea,” she said, “ and that is that it ’s 
bed-time. I shall go and exhaust myself with thought. 
The process of exhaustion does not take long. Be- 
sides, if I sit up much later than twelve, my maid 
always pulls my hair, and whips my head with the 
brush instead of treating me kindly.” 

“ I should dismiss her,” said Nadine. 

“ I could n’t, dear. She is so imbecile that she 
would never get another situation. Ah, there ’s 


26 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Hugh ! Hugh, did poor Algie Balearic-isles beat 
you?" 

A very large young man had just appeared in the 
doorway. He held in his hand a sandwich out of 
which he had just taken an enormous semi-circular 
bite. The rest of it was in his mouth, and he spoke 
with the mumbling utterance necessary to those who 
converse when their mouths are quite full. 

“ Oh, is that where he comes from ? ’’ he asked. 

“ No, my dear, that is where he went to ; then of 
course since he is here he did come from them in a 
sense. Dear me, if he had been bishop there about 
fifty years earlier, he might have copied Chopin. 
How thrilling ! ’’ 

“ Yes, the Isles won," said Hugh, his voice clearing 
as he swallowed. “ Oh, Aunt Dodo " — this again 
was a relationship founded only on affection — “ he 
said your price was beyond rubies. So I said ‘ What 
price rubies ? ’ and as he did n’t understand nor did I, 
we parted. What a lot of people there seems to be 
here! I came to talk to Nadine. Oh, there she is. 
Or would it be better taste if I didn’t? Perhaps it 
would. I shall go to bed instead.’’ 

“ Then what you call taste is what I call peevish- 
ness," said Nadine succinctly. 

“ I don’t understand. What is better peevishness, 
then?" 

“ You take me at the foot of the letter," said she. 
“ You see what I mean." 

“ Yes. I see that you mean 4 literally.’ But in 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


27 

any case there are too many people, chiefly upside 
down from where I am. That ’s Esther, is n’t it, and 
Berts? Tommy is the right way up. Nadine upside 
down also.” 

Esther got up. 

“ Why, of course, if you want to talk to Nadine, 
we’ll go,” she said. 

Bertie gave a long sigh. 

“ I shall lie here,” he said, “ like the frog-footman 
on and off for days and days — ” 

“ So long as you lie off now,” said Hugh. 

Bertie got up. 

“ You can all come to my room if you like,” he 
said, “as long as you don’t mind my going to bed. 
Good-night, Nadine; thanks awfully for letting me 
lie down. It has made me quite sleepy.” 

Hugh Graves went to the window as soon as they 
had gone and threw it open. 

“The room smells of smoke and stale epigrams,” 
he said in explanation. 

“ That ’s not very polite, Hugh,” said she, “ since 
I have been talking most, and not smoking least. 
But I suppose you will answer that you did n’t come 
here to be polite.” 

In a moment, even as the physical atmosphere of 
the room altered, so also did the spiritual. It seemed 
to Nadine that she and Hugh took hands and sailed 
through the surface foam and brightnesses in which 
they had been playing into some place which they 
had made for themselves, which was dim and sub- 


28 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


aqueous. The foam and brightness was all perfectly 
sincere, for she was never other than sincere, but it 
had no more than the sincerity of soap-bubbles. 

“No. I did n’t come here to be polite,” said Hugh, 
“ though I did n’t come here to be rude. I came to 
ask you a couple of questions.” 

Nadine had lain down on the bed again, having 
put all the pillows behind her, so that she was propped 
up by them. Her arms were clasped behind her head, 
and the folds of her rainbow dressing-gown fell back 
from them leaving them bare nearly to the shoulder. 
The shaded light above her bed fell upon her hair, 
burnishing its gold, and her face below it was dim 
and suggested rather than outlined. The most ac- 
complished of coquettes would, after thought, have 
chosen exactly that attitude and lighting, if she 
wanted to appear to the greatest advantage to a man 
who loved her, but Nadine had done it without mo- 
tive. It may have been that it was an instinct with 
her to appear to the utmost advantage, but she would 
have done the same, without thought, if she was 
talking to a middle-aged dentist. Hugh had seated 
himself at some little distance from her, and the same 
light threw his face into strong line and vivid color. 
He had still something of the rosiness of youth about 
him, but none of youth’s indeterminateness, and he 
looked older than his twenty-five years. When he 
was moving, he moved with a boy’s quickness; when 
he sat still he sat with the steadiness of strong ma- 
turity. 

“ You need n’t ask them,” she said. “ I can answer 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


29 

you without that. The answer to them both is that I 
don’t know.” 

“ How ? Do you know the questions yet ? ” said he. 

“ I do. You want to know whether my answer to 
you this evening is final. You want also to know why 
I don’t say ‘ yes.’ ” 

His eyes admitted the correctness of this: he need 
not have spoken. 

“ After all, there was not much divination wanted,” 
he said. “ I am as obvious as usual. And you under- 
stand me as well as usual.” 

She shook her head at this, not denying it, but only 
deprecating it. 

“ I always understand you too well,” she said. “If 
only I did n’t understand you, just as I don’t under- 
stand Seymour, you have suggested a reason for why 
I don’t say * yes.’ I think it is correct. Ah, don’t 
quote silly proverbs about love’s being complete under- 
standing. Most of the proverbs are silly; Solomon 
was so old when he wrote them.” 

His mouth uncurled from its gravity. 

“ That was n’t one of Solomon’s,” he said. 

“ Then it might have been. In any case exactly 
the opposite is true. If love is anything at all beyond 
the obvious physical sense of the word, it is certainly 
not understanding. It is the not-understanding — ” 

“ Mis-understanding? ” 

“ No. The not-understanding, the mysterious, the 
unaccountable — ” Nadine gathered her legs up un- 
der her and sat clasping them round the knees, and 
her utterance grew more rapid. Her face, young and 


3 o DODO’S DAUGHTER 

undeveloped, and white and exquisite, was full of 
eager animation. 

“ That is what I feel anyhow,” she said. “ Of 
course I can’t say * this is love ’ and * this is not love/ 
and label other people’s emotions. There is one way 
of love and another way of love, and another and 
another. There are as many modes of love, I suppose, 
as there are people who are capable of it. And don’t 
tell me everybody is capable of it. At least, tell me so 
if you like, but allow me to disagree. All I am certain 
of is that I look for something which you don’t give 
me. Perhaps I am incapable of love. And if I was 
sure of that, Hughie, I would marry you. Do you 
see?” 

She, as was always the case with her, made him 
forget himself. When he was with her, she absorbed 
his consciousness: his only desire was to follow her, 
not caring where she led. This desire to apprehend her 
corrugated his forehead into the soft wrinkles of youth, 
and narrowed his eyes. 

“ Tell me why that is not a bad reason,” he said. 

“ Because I should see that the highest would be 
denied me,” she said. “ Look what quantities of peo- 
ple marry quite without love. I don’t refer to the 
obvious reason of marrying for position or wealth, 
but to the people who marry from admiration or 
from fear. Mama, for instance: she married Daddy 
because she was afraid of him. Then she learned he 
was a bogey with a brandy bottle.” 

“ I am neither,” said he. 

Nadine gave a little sigh, and he saw his stupidity. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


3 1 

“ I am supplying the answer to my own question,” 
he said. “ Another answer is that I don’t understand 
you.” 

Somehow to Nadine this was unexpected, but almost 
instantly she recognized the truth of it. 

“ That is true,” she said. “ I want to be the in- 
ferior, mentally, spiritually, of the man I marry. I 
am just the opposite of those terrible people who want 
a vote, and say they are the equal of men. That is 
so bourgeois an idea. What woman with any self- 
respect could stand being her husband’s equal if she 
felt herself capable of loving? It is that. You are 
too easy, Hugh. I understand you, and you don’t 
understand me. I wish it was the other way round.” 

“ Oh, you do wish that ? ” he asked. 

“Yes, of course, my dear.” 

“ Then you have answered the other question. 
[Your answer to me to-day is not final. I ’ll puzzle 
you yet.” 

“ You speak of it all as if it was a conjuring trick,” 
she said. “ Don’t make conjuring tricks. Don’t let 
me see your approaching engagement to somebody 
else be announced. That would not puzzle me at all. 
I shall simply see that it was meant to. Conjuring 
tricks don’t mystify you: you know you have been 
cheated and don’t care.” 

“No, I shan’t make conjuring tricks,” he said. 

Nadine unclasped her knees, and got up, and began 
walking to and fro across the big room. 

“ Hugh, I wish I was altogether different,” she said. 
“ I wish I was like one of those simple girls whom 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


32 

you never by any chance meet outside the covers of 
six-shilling novels. They are quite human, only no 
human girl was ever like them. They like music and 
food and sentiment and sea-bathing and playing fool- 
ish games, just as we all do. But there is nobody 
behind them: they are tastes without character. If 
only one’s character was nothing more than the sum 
total of one’s tastes, how extraordinarily simple it 
would all be. We should spend our lives in making 
ourselves pleasant and enjoying ourselves. But there 
is something that sits behind all our tastes, and though 
those tastes express it, they do not express it all, nor 
do they express its essence. I am something beyond 
and back of the things I like, and the people I like. 
Something inside me says c I want : I want.’ I daresay 
it wants the moon, and has as much chance of getting 
it as I have of reaching up into the sky and pulling 
it down. Oh, Hugh, I want the moon, and what will 
the moon be like? Will it be hard and cold or soft 
and warm? I don’t care. I shall slip it between my 
breasts and hold it close.” 

She paused a moment opposite him. 

“ Am I talking damned rot ? ” she asked. “ I dare- 
say I am. I am a rotter then, because all I say is me. 
Another thing, too: morally, I am not in the least 
worthy of you. I don’t know any one who is. I don’t 
really, and I ’m not flattering you, because I don’t rate 
the moral qualities very high. They are compatible 
with such low organizations. Earwigs, I read the 
other day, are excellent mothers. How that seems to 
alter one’s conception of the beauty of the maternal 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


33 

instinct! It does not alter my conception of earwigs 
in the least, and I shall continue to kill any excellent 
mothers that I find in my room.” 

Hugh laughed suddenly and uproariously and then 
became perfectly grave again. 

“ Your moral organization is probably extremely 
low,” he said. “ But I settled long ago to overlook 
that.” 

“ Ah, there we are again,” said Nadine. “ You 
deliberately propose to misconceive me, with the 
kindest intentions I know, but with how wrong a 
principle. You shut your eyes to me, as if — as if 
I was a smut! You settle to overlook the fact that 
I have no real moral perception. Could you settle to 
overlook the fact if I had no nose and only one tooth? 
I assure you the lack of a moral nature is a more 
serious defect. But, poor devil that I am, how was 
I to get one? We were talking about heredity before 
you came in — ” 

Nadine paused a moment. 

“ As a matter of fact,” she said, “ I was telling them 
that there was no truth in heredity. We will now 
take the other side of the question. How was I, con- 
sidering my family, to have moral perceptions?” 

“ Are you being quite consistent ? ” asked Hugh. 

“Why should I be consistent? Who is consistent 
except those simple people whom you buy so many 
of for six shillings, and they are consistently tiresome. 
How, I said, was I to have got moral perception? 
There is Daddy! If I was a doctor I would certify 
any one to be insane who said Daddy was a moral 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


34 

organism. There is darling Mama! I would horse- 
whip any one who said the same of her, for his 
gross stupidity and insolence. The result is me; I 
am more pagan than Heliogabalus. I do not think 
that anything is right or that anything is wrong. I 
want the moon, but I am afraid you are not the man 
in it.” 

“ And now you are flippant.” 

“ Flippant, serious, moral, immoral,” cried Nadine, 
“ do not label me like luggage. You will tell me my 
destination next, shall we call it Abraham’s bosom? 
Dear Hugh, you enrage me sometimes. Chiefly you 
enrage me because you have such an angelic temper 
yourself. I am not sure that an angelic temper is an 
advantage: it is always set fair, and there are no 
surprises. Ah, how it all leads round to that: there 
are no surprises: I understand you too well. I am 
very sorry. Do me the justice to believe that. Really 
I believe that I am as sorry that I can’t marry you 
as you are.” 

Hugh got up. 

“I don’t think I do quite believe that,” he said. 
“ And now as regards the immediate future. I think 
I shall go away to-morrow.” 

This time he succeeded in surprising her. 

“ Himmel, but why?” she said. 

“ If you understood me as well as you say, you 
would know,” he said. “ I don’t find my own heart 
a satisfactory diet. Of course, if I thought you 
would miss me — ” 

Nadine was quite silent for a moment. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


35 

“ You shall go if you like, of course,” she said. 
“ But you do me the most frightful injustice: you 
understand nothing about me if you think I should 
not miss you. You cannot be so dull as not to know 
that I should miss you more than if everybody else 
went, literally everybody, leaving me alone. But go 
if you wish.” 

She walked across to the window, which Hugh had 
thrown open, and leaned out. A moon rode high in 
mid-sky, and to the West a quarter of a mile away 
and far below the sea glimmered like a shield of dim 
silver. Below the window the ground sloped sharply 
away down to the gray tumbled sand dunes that 
fringed the coast, and all lay blurred and melted under 
the uncertain light. And when she turned round 
again Hugh saw that her eyes were blurred and melted 
also. 

“ Do exactly as you please, Hughie,” she said. 

He laughed. 

“ Would you be surprised if I did not go?” he 
asked. 

She came towards him with both hands out. 

“ Ah, that is dear of you,” she said. “ Look out 
of the window with me a moment : how dim and mys- 
terious. There is my moon which I want so much, 
too. I will build altars and burn incense to any god 
who will give it me. If only I knew what it was. 
My moon, I mean ! Now perhaps as it is nearly two 
o’clock, we had better go to bed, Hughie. And I am 
so sorry that things are as they are.” 


CHAPTER II 


I T had been said, by Edith Arbuthnot, perhaps un- 
kindly, but with sufficient humor to neutralize the 
acidity, that there was always somebody awake day 
and night in Dodo’s house tending the flame of ego- 
istic introspection. Edith did not generally use long 
words, but chose them carefully when she indulged in 
polysyllables. She had not been so careful in the 
choice of her confidant, for she had fired this wither- 
ing criticism at her son Berts, who in the true spirit 
of an affectionate nephew instantly repeated it to 
Dodo, who had roared with laughter and sent Edith 
an enormous telegram (costing nine shillings and a 
halfpenny, including sixpence for a paid reply in case 
Edith wanted to continue the discussion) describing 
a terrible accident that had just happened to herself. 

“ A most extraordinary and tragic affair ” (this 
was all written out in full) “has just occurred at 
Meering at the house of Princess Waldenech. The 
unfortunate lady has just died of a sudden though not 
unexpected attack of spontaneous egoism. Loud 
screams were heard from her room, and Mr. Bertie 
Arbuthnot, son of the celebrated Edith Arbuthnot, 
the musical composer, rushed in to find the princess 
enveloped in sheets of blue flame. The efforts made 
36 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 3 7 

to quench her were of no avail and in a few moments 
all that was left of her was a small handful of ashes, 
which curiously enough, as they cooled, assumed the 
shape of a capital ‘ 1 / Fear is felt that this outbreak 
may prove to be contagious, and all those who have 
been in contact with the combusted princess are busy 
disinfecting themselves by talking about each other. 
It is believed that Mrs. Arbuthnot has begun to write 
a funeral march for her friend, for whom she felt an 
adoring affection amounting almost to worship, in the 
unusual key of ten sharps and eleven flats. It is in 
brisk waltz time and all the performers will blow their 
own trumpets. She is sending copies to nearly all 
the crowned heads of Europe.” 

Edith’s reply was equally characteristic. 

“ Dodo, I love you.” 

The truth in Edith’s criticism was certainly exem- 
plified in the night of which we are speaking, for Hugh 
did not leave Nadine’s room, where she had been 
engaged on the self-analysis given in the last chapter 
till two o’clock, and at that precise moment Dodo, 
who had gone to bed more than an hour before, woke 
up and began thinking about herself with uncommon 
intensity. And indeed there was sufficient to think 
about in the circumstances with which she had at this 
moment allowed herself to be surrounded. For the 
last two days, the husband whom she had divorced 
with such extreme facility had been staying with her, 
and to-morrow, directly on his departure, Jack Ches- 
terford, to whom she had been engaged when she ran 
away with the husband she had just divorced, was 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


38 

arriving. All her life Dodo had liked drama, as long 
as it occurred outside the walls of English theaters, 
but better than the theaters even of Paris were the 
dramas which came into real life, especially when you 
could not possibly tell (even though you were acting 
yourself) what was going to happen next. Best of 
all she liked acting herself, having a part to play, with- 
out the slightest idea what she or anybody else was 
going to do or say. 

Dodo’s zest for life did not decrease with years, 
nor did her interest in it in the least diminish as the 
time of her youth began to recede into horizons far 
behind her. For all the time other horizons were get- 
ting closer to her, and she could imagine herself being 
quite old — “ as old as Grannie ” in fact — without 
any of the tragic envy of past years that so often make 
wormwood of the present. She had indeed settled 
the mode of her procedure for those years, which were 
still far enough off, with some exactitude, and was 
quite determined to have a mob-cap with a blue riband 
in it, and gold-rimmed spectacles. Also she would 
read Thomas a Kempis a great deal, — she had read 
a little already, and was now deliberately keeping 
the rest until she was seventy — and walk about her 
garden with a tall cane and pick lavender. She had, 
moreover, promised herself to make no attempts at 
sprightliness or to have her hair dyed, since one of 
the few classes of women whom she really objected 
to were those whom she called grizzly kittens, who 
dabbed at you with their rheumatic old paws, and pre- 
tended that they had no need of spectacles, though it 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


39 

was quite clear they could not read the very largest 
print. But she fully intended to remain exceedingly 
happy when those years came, for happiness so it 
seemed to her was a gift that came from within and 
could not be taken from you by any amount of external 
calamities or accumulation of decades. Certainly in 
the years that had passed she had had her share of 
annoyances, and in support of her theory with regard 
to happiness it must be confessed that they had not 
deprived her of one atom of it. Her late husband’s 
conduct, for instance, had for years been of the most 
disagreeable kind, and she had borne with it not in 
the least like a tearful lamb but more like a cheerful 
lion. It had not in the least discouraged her with life 
in general, but only disgusted her with him. For the 
last two years before she got her divorce, he had been, 
as she expressed it, “ too Bacchic for anything,” and 
she had sent Nadine away from their homes in .Aus- 
tria to live with a variety of old friends in England. 
Eventually Dodo had decided that she would waste 
no more time with her husband and got her freedom 
coupled with an extremely handsome allowance. She 
continued to call herself “ Princess Waldenech,” be- 
cause it was still rather pleasant being a Princess, and 
Waldenech told her that, as far as he was concerned, 
she might call herself “ Dowager-Empress Walde- 
nech,” or anything else she chose. 

So for a year now she had been in England, and 
had stepped back, or rather jumped back, into the old 
relations with almost all that numerous body of peo- 
ple who twenty years ago had helped to make life so 


40 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


enchanting. And with the same swiftness and sure- 
ness she had established herself in the hearts of the 
younger generation that had grown up since, so that 
the sons and daughters of her old friends became her 
nephews and nieces. Nadine, with the beauty, the 
high spirits and power of enjoyment that was hers by 
birthright, had so it seemed to her mother succeeded 
to a place that was very like what her own had been 
rather more than twenty years ago. Of course there 
was a tremendous difference in their modes, for the 
manners and outlook of one generation are as diver- 
gent from those of the last, as are the clothes they 
wear, but the same passionate love of life, the same 
curiosity and vividness inspired her daughter’s friends, 
even as they had inspired her own. And since she 
herself had lost not one atom of her own vitality, it 
was not strange that the years between them and her 
were easily bridged over. 

There were one or two voices that were silent in 
the chorus of welcome with which Dodo’s reappearance 
had been hailed. One of these was Edith Arbuthnot, 
who, though she did not desire to put any restrictions 
on Berts’ intimacy (which was lucky, since Berts was 
a young gentleman hideously gifted with the power of 
getting his way) loudly proclaimed that she could 
never be friends with Dodo again. But the answer 
she had sent to Dodo’s remarkable telegram about 
combusted egoism a few days before seemed to indi- 
cate that she had surrendered and, though she had 
subsequently announced that Dodo was heartless, might 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


41 

be regarded as a convert, especially since Jack had at 
last yielded too, and had invited himself down here. 
Another fortress hitherto impregnable was Mrs. 
Vivian, for whom Dodo in days gone by had felt as 
solid an affection as she was capable of. Conse- 
quently she regretted that Mrs. Vivian was invariably 
unable to come and dine, and never manifested the 
slightest desire that Dodo should come to see her. 
Her regret was slightly tempered by the fact that Mrs. 
Vivian had an ear-trumpet in these days, which she 
presented to people whose conversation she desired 
to hear rather in the manner that elephants at the Zoo 
hold out their trunks for refreshments. Somehow 
that seemed to make her matter less, and Dodo had 
not at present made any determined effort to beleaguer 
her. But she intended when she went back to town 
in July to capture what was now practically the only 
remaining stronghold of the disaffected. 

When Dodo drowsily awoke that night just at the 
time that Hugh and Nadine had finished their talk 
it was the thought of Jack that first stirred in her 
mind. Instantly she was perfectly wide-awake. Dur- 
ing this last year, though he was great friends with 
Nadine, he had absolutely avoided coming into con- 
tact with herself. He never went to a house where 
Dodo was expected, and once finding she was staying 
for a Saturday-till-Monday with the Granthams, had 
left within ten minutes of his arrival. Miss Grantham 
had conceived this misbegotten plan of bringing them 
unexpectedly face to face, with the only result that 
the party numbered thirteen, and her father was very 


42 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

uncomfortable for weeks afterwards. Once again 
they had been caught in a block in taxi-cabs exactly 
opposite each other. Dodo, taking the bull by the 
horns, had leaned impulsively toward him with both 
hands outstretched and cried, “Ah, Jack, are we 
never to meet again ? ” On which the bull, so to 
speak, paid his fare, and continued his journey on 
foot. Dodo had been considerably disappointed by 
this rebuff : it had seemed to her that no man should 
have resisted her direct appeal. On the other hand, 
Jack on seeing her had nailed to his face so curiously 
icy a mask that his appearance became quite ludicrous. 
Also he knocked his hat against the roof of the closed 
half of his cab, and it fell into the road, in the middle 
of an unusually deep puddle. She noticed that he was 
not bald yet, which was a great relief, since she detested 
the sight of craniums. 

And now Jack had yielded, had walked out of his 
citadel without any further assault being delivered, 
and was to arrive to-day. At the thought, when she 
woke in the stillness of earliest morning, Dodo’s brain 
started into fullest activity, and, as always, as much 
interested in the motives that inspired actions as in 
the actions themselves, she set herself to ponder 
the nature of the impulse which had caused so com- 
plete a volte-face . But the action itself interested and 
charmed her also: all this year she had wanted to 
see Jack again. He had understood her better than 
any one, and in spite of the vile way in which she had 
used him, she had more nearly loved him than either 
of the men she had married. Her first husband had 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


43 

never been more to her than “ an old darling,” and 
often something not nearly that. Of Waldenech she 
had simply been afraid : under the fascination of fear 
she had done what he told her. But Jack — 

Dodo felt for the switch of her electric light: the 
darkness was too close to her eyes, and she wanted to 
focus them on something. Clearly there were several 
possibilities any of which would account for this 
change in him. He might perhaps merely wish to 
resume ordinary and friendly relations with her. But 
that did not seem a likely explanation, since, if that 
was all, he would more naturally have waited till she 
returned to town again after this sojourn in the coun- 
try. There must have been in his mind a cause more 
potent than that. Naturally the more potent cause 
occurred to her, and she sat up in bed. “ It is too 
ludicrous,” she said to herself, “ it cannot possibly be 
that.” And yet he had remained unmarried all these 
years, with how many charming girls about who would 
have been perfectly willing to share his wealth and 
title, not to speak of himself. 

Dodo got out of bed altogether; and went across 
the room to where a big looking-glass set in the door 
of her wardrobe reflected her entire figure. She 
wished to be quite honest in her inspection of herself, 
to see there not what she wanted to see but what there 
was to be seen. The room was brightly lit, and 
through her thin silk nightdress she could see the lines 
of her figure, molded in the soft swelling curves of 
her matured womanhood. Yet something of the slim- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


44 

ness and firm elasticity of youth still dwelt there, even 
as youth still shone in the smooth unwrinkled oval of 
her face and sparkled in the depths of her dark eyes. 
Right down to her waist hung the thick coils of her 
black hair, still untroubled by gray, and slim and 
shapely were her ankles, soft and rosy from the 
warmth of her bed her exquisite feet. And at the 
sight of herself her mouth uncurled itself into a smile: 
the honesty of her scrutiny had produced no discour- 
aging revelations. Then frankly laughing at herself 
she turned away again, and wholly unconsciously and 
instinctively took half a dozen dance-steps across the 
Persian rugs that were laid down over the polished 
floor. She could no more help that impulse of her 
bubbling vitality than she could help the fact that she 
was five feet eight in height. 

The coolness and refreshment of the two hours be- 
fore dawn streamed in through her open window, and 
she put on the dressing-gown with its cascades of lace 
and blue ribands that lay on the chair by her dressing- 
table. Supposing it was the case that Jack was com- 
ing for her, that he wanted her now as in the old days 
when she had thrown his devotion back at him like 
a pail of dirty water, what answer would she make 
him? Really she hardly knew. Neither of her mar- 
riages had been a conspicuous success, but for neither 
of her husbands had she felt anything of that quality 
of emotion which she had felt for the man she had 
treated so infamously. She gave a great sigh and be- 
gan ticking off certain events on her fingers. 

“ First of all I refused him before I married poor 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


45 

darling Chesterford the first,” she said to herself. 
“ Secondly, having married Chesterford the first, I 
asked Jack to run away with me. But that was in a 
moment of great exasperation : it might have happened 
to anybody. Thirdly, as soon as Chesterford I. was 
taken, I got engaged to Jack which I ought to have 
done originally; and fourthly, I jilted him and married 
Waldenech.” 

Dodo had arrived at her little finger and held her 
other hand poised over it. 

“ What the devil is fifthly to be ? ” she said aloud. 

She got out of her chair again. 

“ It is very odd but I simply can’t make up my 
mind,” she thought, “ and I usually can make it up 
without the slightest trouble ; indeed it is usually al- 
ready made up, just as one used to find eggs already 
boiled in that absurd machine that always stood by 
Chesterford at breakfast. I hate boiled eggs ! But I 
wonder if I owe it to Jack to marry him if he wants 
me to? Supposing he says I have spoiled his life, 
and he wants me to unspoil it now ? Is it my duty 
apart from whatever my inclination may be, and I 
wish I knew what it was ? ” 

Dodo felt herself quite unable to make up her mind 
on this somewhat important point. She felt herself 
already embarked on an argument with Jack, as she 
had been so often embarked in the old days, and on 
how pleasant and summery a sea. She would cer- 
tainly tell him that nobody ought to let his life be 
spoiled by anybody else, and she would point to her- 
self as a triumphant instance of how she had refused 


46 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

to let her joy of life get ever so slightly tarnished by 
the really trying experiences in her partnership with 
Waldenech. Here was she positively as good as new. 
And then unfortunately it occurred to her that Jack 
might say “ But then you did n’t love him.” And the 
ingenious Dodo felt herself unable to frame any reply 
to this very bald suggestion. It really seemed unan- 
swerable. 

There was a further reason which might account for 
Jack’s coming: Nadine. Dodo knew that the two 
were great friends. She had even heard it suggested 
that Jack had serious thoughts with regard to her. 
Very likely that was only invented by some friend who 
was curious to know how she herself would take the 
suggestion, but clearly this was not an improbable, far 
less an impossible, contingency. But that Nadine had 
serious thoughts with regard to Jack was less likely. 
Dodo felt that her daughter took after herself in emo- 
tional matters and was probably not at that age seri- 
ously thinking about anybody. Yet after all she her- 
self had married at that age (though without serious 
thought) and the experiment which seemed so sensible 
and promising had been a distinct disappointment. 
Ought she to warn Nadine against marrying without 
love? Or would that look as if, for other reasons, 
she did not wish her to marry Jack? That would be 
an odious interpretation, to put on it, and the worst of 
it was that she was not perfectly certain whether there 
was not some sort of foundation for it. Something 
within her ever so faintly resented the idea of Jack’s 
marrying Nadine. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


4 7 

Dodo’s thought paused and was poised over this for 
a little, and she made an eager and a conscious effort 
to root out from her mind this feeling of which she 
was genuinely ashamed. Then suddenly all her medi- 
tations were banished, for from outside there came 
the first faint chirrupings of an awakening bird. Deep 
down in her, below the trivialities and surface-compli- 
cations of life, below all her warm-heartedness and her 
egoism there lay a strain of natural untainted simplic- 
ity, and these first flutings of birds in the bushes 
roused it. She went to the window and drew up the 
blind. 

The dusk still hovered over the sea and low-lying 
land, and in the sky already turning dove-colored a 
late star lingered, remotely burning. The bird that 
had called her to look at the dawn had ceased again, 
and a pause holy and sweet and magical brooded over 
this virginal meeting of night and day. But far off 
to the right the hill-tops had got the earliest news of 
what was coming and were flecked with pale orient 
reflections and hints of gold and scarlet and faint 
crimson. But here below the dusk lay thick still, like 
clear dark water. 

Just below her window lay the lawn, garlanded 
round with sleeping and dew-drenched flower-beds and 
the incense of their fragrant buds and folded petals 
still slept in the censer, till in the East should rise the 
gold-haired priest and swing it, tossing high to heaven 
the fragrance of its burning. And then from out of 
the bushes beyond there scudded a thrush, perhaps the 
same as had called Dodo to the window. He scurried 


48 DODO'S DAUGHTER 

over the shimmering lawn with innumerable footfalls, 
and came so close underneath her window that she 
could see his eyes shining. Then he swelled his throat, 
and sang one soft phrase of morning, paused as if 
listening and then repeated it. All the magic of youth 
and joy of life was there: there was also in Dodo’s 
heart the indefinable yearning for days that were dead, 
the sense of the fathomless well of time into which for- 
ever dropped beauty and youth and the soft sweet days. 
But that lasted but a moment, for as long as the thrush 
paused. Another voice and yet another sounded from 
the bushes; there were other thrushes there, and in 
the ivy of the house arose the cheerful jangling of 
sparrows. Fresh-feathered forms ran out upon the 
lawn, and the air was shrill with their pipings. Every 
moment the sky grew brighter with the imminent day, 
the last star faded in the glow of pink translucent ala- 
baster, and in the green-crowned elms the breeze of 
morning awoke, and stirred the tree-tops. Then it 
came lower, and began to move in the flower-beds, and 
the wine of the dew was spilled from the chalices of 
new-blown roses, and the tall lilies quivered. There 
was wafted up to her the indescribable odor of moist 
earth and opening flowers, and on the moment the first 
yellow ray of sunlight shot over the garden. 

Dodo stood there dim-eyed, unspeakably and mys- 
teriously moved. She thought of other dawns she 
had seen, when coming back perhaps from a ball where 
she had been the central and most brilliant figure all 
night long; she thought of other troubled dawns when 
she had wakened from some unquiet dream and yet 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


49 


dreaded the day. But here was a perfect dawn and 
it seemed to symbolize to her the beginning of the life 
that lay in front of her. She looked forward to it 
with eager anticipation, she gave it a rapturous wel- 
come. She was in love with life still, she longed to 
see what delicious things it held in store for her. She 
felt sure that God was going to be tremendously kind 
to her. And in turn (for she had a certain sense of 
fairness) she felt most whole-heartedly grateful and 
determined to deserve these favors. There were things 
in her life she was very sorry for : such omissions and 
commissions should not occur again. She felt that 
the sight of this delicious dawn had been a sort of 
revelation to her. And with a great sigh of content, 
she went back to bed, and without delay fell fast asleep 
and did not awake till her maid came in at eight o’clock 
with a little tray of tea that smelt too good for any- 
thing, and a whole sheaf of attractive-looking letters, 
large, stiff square ones, which certainly contained cards 
that bade her to delightful entertainments. 

She always breakfasted in her room, and when she 
came downstairs about half-past ten, and looked into 
the dining-room, she found to her surprise that Wal- 
denech was there eating sausages one after the other. 
This was a very strange proceeding for him, since 
in general he adopted slightly shark-like hours and did 
not breakfast till at least lunch-time. Time, or at any 
rate, his habits and method of spending it, had not 
been so kind to him as to Dodo and though it had not 
robbed him of that look of distinction which was al- 
ways his it had conferred upon him the look of being 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


50 

considerably the worse for wear. He seemed as much 
older than his years as Dodo appeared younger than 
hers, and she was no longer in the least afraid of him. 
Indeed it struck her that morning as she came in, 
with a sense of wonder, that she had ever found him 
formidable. 

“ Good-morning, my dear,” she said, “ but how very 
surprising. Has everybody efee finished and gone 
out? Waldenech, I am so glad you suggested coming 
here, and I hope you have n’t regretted it.” 

“ I have not enjoyed any days so much since you 
left me,” he said. 

“ How dear of you to say that ! Every one thought 
it so extraordinary that you should want to come here 
or that I should let you, but I am delighted you did.” 

He left his place, and came to sit in a chair next 
her. The remains of Nadine’s breakfast were on a 
plate opposite : half a poached egg, some melon rind, 
marmalade and a cigarette end. He pushed these 
rather discouraging relics away. 

“ It is not extraordinary that I should want to come 
here,” he said, “ for the simple reason that you are the 
one woman I ever really cared about. I always cared 
for you — «” 

“ There are others who think you occasionally cared 
for them,” remarked Dodo. 

“ That may be so. Now I should like to stop on. 
May I do so?” 

“ No, my dear, I am afraid that you certainly may 
not,” she said. “ Jack comes to-day and the situation 
would not be quite comfortable, not to say decent.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


5i 


“ Do you think that matters? ” he asked. 

“ It certainly is going to matter. You have n’t 
really got a European mind, Waldenech. Your mind 
is probably Thibetan. Is it Thibet where you do 
exactly as you feel inclined? The place where there 
are Llamas.” 

“ I do as I feel inclined wherever I am,” said he. 

Dodo remembered, again with wonder, the awful 
mastery that that sort of sentence as delivered by him 
used to have for her. Now it had none of any kind : 
his personality had simply ceased to be dominant with 
regard to her. 

“ But then you won’t be here,” said she. " You 
will go by that very excellent train that never stops at 
all; I have reserved a carriage for you.” 

He lit a cigarette. 

“ I must have been insane to behave to you as I did,” 
he said. “ It was most intensely foolish from a purely 
selfish point of view.” 

She patted his hand which lay on the table-cloth. 

“ Certainly it was,” she said, “ if you wanted to 
keep me. I told you so more than once. I told you 
that there were limits, but you appeared to believe there 
were not. That was quite like you, my dear. You 
always thought yourself a Czar. I do not think we 
need to go into past histories.” 

He got up. 

“ Dodo, would you ever under any circumstances 
come back to me? ” he said. “ There is Nadine, you 
know. It gives her a better chance — ” 

Dodo interrupted him. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


52 

“ You are not sincere when you say that. It isn’t 
of Nadine that you think. As for your question, I 
have never heard of any circumstances which would 
induce me to do as you suggest. Of course we can- 
not say that they don’t exist, but I have never come 
across them. Don’t let us think of it, Waldenech : it 
is quite impossible. If you were dying, I would come, 
but under the distinct understanding that I should go 
away again, in case you got better, as I am sure I hope 
you would. I don’t bear you the slightest ill-will. 
You did n’t spoil my life at all, though it is true you 
often made me both angry and miserable. As regards 
Nadine, she has an excellent chance, as you call it, 
under the present arrangements. All my friends have 
come back to me, except Mrs. Vivian.” 

“ Mrs. Vivian ? ” said he. “ Oh, yes, an English 
type, earnest widow.” 

“ With an ear-trumpet now,” continued Dodo ; “ and 
I shall get her some day. And Jack comes this after- 
noon. Voila, the round table again! I take up the 
old life anew, with the younger generation as well, not 
a penny the worse.” 

“ You are a good many pennies the better,” said he 
in self- justification. “ As regards Lord Chesterford: 
why is he coming here? ” 

“ I suppose because, like you, he wants to see me 
and Nadine or both of us.” 

“ Do you suppose he wants to marry you ? ” he 
asked. “ Will you marry him ? ” 

Dodo got up, reveling in her sense of liberty. 

“ Waldenech, you don’t seem to realize that certain 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


53 

questions from you to me are impertinent,” she said. 
“ My dear, what I do now is none of your business. 
You have as much right to ask Mrs. Vivian whether 
she is thinking of marrying again. You have been so 
discreet and pleasant all these days : don’t break down 
now. I have not the slightest idea if Jack wants to 
marry me now, as a matter of fact; and I have really 
no idea if I would marry him in case he did. It is 
more than twenty years since I spoke to him — oh, I 
spoke to him out of a taxi-cab the other day, but he 
did not answer — and I have no idea what he is like. 
In twenty years one may become an entirely different 
person. However, that is all my business, and no one 
else’s. Now, if you have finished, let us take a stroll 
in the garden before your carriage comes round.” 

“ I ask then a favor of you,” he said. 

“ And what is that?” 

“ That you be yourself just for this stroll : that you 
be as you used to be when we met that summer at 
Zermatt.” 

Dodo was rather touched: she was also relieved 
that the favor was one so easy to grant. She took his 
arm as they left the dining-room and came out into 
the brilliant sunshine. 

“ That is dear of you to remember Zermatt,” she 
said. “ Oh, Waldenech, think of those great moun- 
tains still standing there in their silly rows with their 
noses in the air. How frightfully fatiguing! And 
they all used to look as if they were cuts with each 
other, and there they ’ll be a thousand years hence, not 
having changed in the least. But I ’m not sure we 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


54 

don’t have the better time scampering about for a 
few years, and running in and out like mice, though 
we get uglier and older every day. Look, there is 
poor John Sturgis coming towards us: let us quickly 
go in the opposite direction. Ah, he has seen us ! — 
Dear John, Nadine was looking for you, I believe. I 
think she expected you to read something to her after 
breakfast about Goths or Gothic architecture. Or 
was it Bishop Algie you were talking to last night 
about cathedrals? One or the other, I am sure. He 
said he so much enjoyed his talk with you.” 

Waldenech felt that Dodo was behaving exactly as 
she used to behave at Zermatt. Somehow in his slug- 
gish and alcoholic soul there rose vibrations like those 
he had felt then. 

“ Talk to him or me, it does not matter,” he said 
in German to her, “ but talk like that. That is what 
I want.” 

Dodo gave him one glance of extraordinary mean- 
ing. This little muttered speech strangely reminded 
her of the paean in the thrush’s song at dawn. It 
recalled a poignancy of emotion that belonged to days 
long past, but the same poignancy of feeling was hers 
still. She could easily feel and habitually felt, in spite 
of her forty and more years, the mere out-bubbling of 
life that expressed itself in out-bubbling speech. She 
also rather welcomed the presence of a third party: 
it was easier for her to bubble to anybody rather than 
to Waldenech. She buttonholed the perfectly will- 
ing John. 

“ Bishop Algie is such a dear, is n’t he? ” she said. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


55 

“ He is accustomed not to talk at all, and so talking 
is a treat to him, and he loved you. He is taking 
a cinematograph show, all about the Acts of the 
Apostles, round the country next autumn to collect 
funds for Maud’s orphanage. The orphanage is al- 
ready built, but there are no orphans. I think the 
money he collects is to get orphans to go there, scholar- 
ships I suppose. He made all his friends group them- 
selves for scenes in the acts, and he is usually St. 
Paul. There is a delicious shipwreck where they are 
tying up the boat with rug-straps and ropes. He had 
it taken in the bay here, and it was extremely rough, 
which made it all the more realistic because dear Algie 
is a very bad sailor and while he was being exceedingly 
unwell over the side, his halo fell off and sank.” 

“We did not talk about the Acts of the Apostles 
last night,” said John firmly, “ we talked about Gothic 
architecture, and Piccadilly, and Wagner.” 

“ But how entrancing,” said Dodo. “ I particularly 
love Siegfried because it is like a pantomime. Do you 
remember when the dragon comes out of his cave look- 
ing exactly like Paddington station, with a red light 
on one side and a green one on the other, and a quan- 
tity of steam, and whistlings, and some rails? Then 
afterwards a curious frosty female appears suddenly 
in the bole of a tree and tells Wotan that his spear 
ought to be looked to before he fights. Waldenech, we 
went together to Baireuth, and you snored, but luckily 
on the right note, and everybody thought it was Fafner. 
John, I was sitting in my window at dawn this morn- 
ing, and all the birds in the world began to sing. It 


56 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

made me feel so common. Nobody ought to see the 
dawn except the birds, and I suppose the worms for 
the sake of the birds.” 

Waldenech turned to her, and again spoke in Ger- 
man. “You are still yourself,” he said. “After all 
these years you are still yourself.” 

Dodo’s German was far more expressive than his, 
it was also ludicrously ungrammatical, and intensely 
rapid. 

“ There are no years,” she said. “ Years are only 
an expression used by people who think about what is 
young and what is old. Every one has his essential 
age, and remains that age always. This man is about 
sixty, the age of his mother.” 

John Sturgis smiled in a kind and superior manner. 

“ Perhaps I had better tell you that I know German 
perfectly,” he said. “Also French and Italian, in case 
you want to say things that I shan’t understand.” 

Dodo stared for a moment, then pealed with 
laughter. 

“ Darling John,” she said, “ I think that is too 
nice of you. If you were nasty you would have let 
me go on talking. Isn’t my German execrable ? 
How clever of you to understand it! But you are 
old, aren’t you? Of course it is not your fault, nor 
is it your misfortune, since all ages are equally agree- 
able. We grow up into our ages if we are born old, 
and we grow out of them, like missing a train, if our 
essential age is young. When you are eighty, you will 
still be sixty, which will be delightful for you. I make 
plans for what I shall be when I am old, but I wonder 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 5 7 

if I shall be able to carry them out. When I am old, 
I shall be what I shall be, I suppose. The inevitable 
does n’t take much notice of our plans, it sits there 
like the princess on the top of the glass-hill while we 
all try, without the slightest success, to get at it. Ah, 
my dear Waldenech, there is the motor come round 
for you. You will have to start, because I have at 
last trained my chauffeur to give one no time to wait 
at the station, and you must not jilt the compartment 
I have engaged you to. It will get to London all 
alone : so bad for a young compartment.” 

He made no further attempt to induce her to let him 
stop, and Dodo, with a certain relief of mind, saw him 
drive off and blew a large quantity of kisses after him. 

“ He was such a dear about the year you were born, 
John,” she said, “ but you are too old to remember 
that. Now I must be Martha, and see the cook and 
all the people who make life possible. Then I shall 
become Mary again and have a delicious bathe before 
lunch. Certainly the good part is much the pleasant- 
est, as is the case always at private theatricals. I think 
we must act this evening: we have not had charades 
or anything for nearly two days.” 

John, like most prigs, was of a gregarious disposi- 
tion, and liked that his own superiority of intellect, of 
which he was so perfectly conscious, should be made 
manifest to others and, literally, he could not imagine 
that Dodo should not seem to prefer burying herself 
in household affairs when he was clearly at leisure to 
converse with her. He did not feel himself quite in 


DODO’S "DAUGHTER 


58 

tune with the younger members of the party, and 
sometimes wondered why he had come here. That 
wonder was shared by others. His tediousness in 
ordinary intercourse was the tediousness of his genus, 
for he always wanted to improve the minds of his 
circle. Unfortunately he mistook quantity of informa- 
tion for quality of mind, and thought that large num- 
bers of facts, even such low facts as dates, held in 
themselves the germ of culture. But since, at the 
present moment, Dodo showed not the smallest desire 
to profit by his leisure, he wandered off to the tennis- 
courts, where he had reason to believe he should find 
companions. His faith was justified, for there was a 
rather typical party assembled. Berts and Hugh were 
playing a single, while Esther was fielding tennis- 
balls for them. They were both admirable perform- 
ers, equally matched and immeasurably active. At 
the moment Esther standing, as before Ahasuerus, 
with balls ready to give to Berts, had got in his way, 
and he had claimed a let. 

“Thanks awfully, Esther/ 5 he said, as he took a 
couple of balls from her, “ but would you get a little 
further back? You are continually getting rather in 
my way/ 5 

“Oh, Berts, 1 5 m so sorry/ 5 she said. “You are 
playing so well ! 55 

“ I know. Esther was in the light, Hugh/ 5 

“ Oh rather, lot, of course/ 5 said Hugh. 

Nadine took no active share. She was lying on the 
grass at the side of the court with Tommy, and was 
reading “ Pride and Prejudice 55 aloud. When Esther 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 59 

had a few moments to spare she came to listen. John 
joined the reading party, and wore an appreciative 
smile. 

Nadine came to the end of a chapter. 

“ Yes, Art, oh, great Art,” she said, shutting the 
book, “ but I am not enchained. It corresponds to 
Madame Bovary, or the Dutch pictures. It is beau- 
tifully done; none but an artist could have done it. 
But I find a great deal of it dull.” 

John’s smile became indulgent. 

“Ah, yes,” he said, “but what you call dull, I 
expect I should call subtle. Surely, Nadine, you see 
how marvelous.” 

Esther groaned. 

“ John, you make me feel sick,” she began. 

“ Balls, please,” said Hugh. 

Esther sprang up. 

“Yes, Hugh, I’ll get them,” she said. “Aren’t 
those two marvelous ? ” she added to Nadine. 

“John is more marvelous,” said Nadine. “John, 
I wish you would get drunk or cheat at cards. It 
would do you a world of good to lose a little of your 
self-respect. You respect yourself far too much. 
Nobody is so respectable as you think yourself. We 
were talking of you last night: I wish you had been 
there to hear; but you had gone to bed with your 
camomile tea. Perhaps you think camomile tea 
subtle also, whereas I should only find it dull.” 

“ I think you are quibbling with words,” he said. 
“ But I, too, wish I had heard you talking last night. 
I always welcome criticism so long as it is sincere.” 


6o 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ It was quite sincere,” said Nadine, “ you may 
rest assured. It was unanimous, too; we were all 
agreed.” 

John found this not in the least disconcerting. 

“ I am not so sure that it matters then,” he said. 
“ When several people are talking about one thing — 
you tell me you were talking about me — they ought 
to differ. If they all agree, it shows they only see 
one side of what they are discussing.” 

Nadine sat up, while Tommy buried his dissipated 
face in his hands. 

“ We only saw one side of you,” she said, “ and that 
was the obvious one. You will say that it was because 
we were dull. But since you like criticism you shall 
know. We all thought you were a prig. Esther said 
you would be distressed if we thought differently. 
She said you like being a prig. Do tell me: is it 
pleasant? Or I expect what I call prig, you call cul- 
tured. Are you cultured ? ” 

Tommy sat up. 

“ Come and listen, Esther,” he shouted. “ Those 
glorious athletes can pick up the balls themselves for 
a minute.” 

Esther emerged from a laurel bush triumphant with 
a strayed reveler. 

“ Oh, is Nadine telling John what she thinks? ” she 
asked. 

“Nadine is!” said Tommy. 

Nadine meantime collected her thoughts. When 
she talked she ascertained for herself beforehand what 
she was going to say. In that respect she was unlike 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


61 


her mother, who ascertained what she thought when 
she found herself saying it. But the result in both 
cases had the spontaneous ring. 

“ John, somehow or other you are a dear,” she 
said, “though we find you detestable. You think, 
anyhow. That gives you the badge. Anybody who 
thinks — ” 

Hugh, like Mr. Longfellow with his arrow, flung 
his racquet into the air, without looking where it went. 
He had a moment previously sent a fast drive into the 
corner of the court, which raised whitewash in a cloud, 
and won him the set. 

“ Nadine, are you administering the oath of the 
clan ? ” he said. “ You have n’t consulted either Berts 
or me.” 

Nadine looked pained. 

“ Did you really think I was admitting poor John 
without consulting you ? ” she said. “ Though he 
complies with the regulations.” 

Hugh, streaming with the response that a healthy 
skin gives to heat, threw himself down on the grass. 

“ I vote against John! ” he said. “ I would sooner 
vote for Seymour. And I won’t vote for him. Also, 
it is surely time to go and bathe.” 

“ I don’t know what you are all talking about,” 
said John. “ I daresay it does n’t matter. But what 
is the clan ? ” 

Hugh sat up. 

“ The clan is nearly prigs,” he said, “ but not quite. 
But you are, quite. We are saved because we do 
laugh at ourselves — ” 


62 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ And you are not saved because you don’t,” added 
Nadine. 

“ And is the whole object of the clan to think?” 
asked John. 

“ No, that is the subject. Also you speak as if we 
all had said, ‘ Let there be a clan, and it was so,’ ” said 
Nadine. “ You must n’t think that. There was a 
clan, and we discovered it, like Newton and the 
orange.” 

“ Apple, surely,” said John. 

Nadine looked brilliantly round. 

“ I knew he would say that,” she said. “ You see 
you correct what I say, whereas a clansman would 
be content to understand what I mean.” 

“ Bishop Algie is clan, by the way,” said Hugh. “ I 
went down to bathe before breakfast, and found him 
kneeling down on the beach saying his prayers. That 
is tremendously clannish.” 

“ I don’t see why,” said John. 

Esther sighed. 

“ No, of course you would n’t see,” she said. 

“ Try him with another,” said Nadine. 

Esther considered. 

" Attend, John,” she said. “ When the last Steven- 
son letters came out, Berts bought them and looked 
at one page. Then he took a taxi to Paddington and 
took a return ticket to Bristol.” 

“ Swindon,” said Berts. 

“ The station is immaterial, so long as it was far 
away. I daresay Swindon is quite as far as Bristol.” 

John smiled. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


63 

“ There you are quite wrong,” he said. “ Swindon 
comes before Bath, and Bristol after Bath. No doubt 
it does not matter, though it is as well to be accurate.” 

Esther looked at him with painful anxiety. 

“ But don’t you see why Berts went to Swindon or 
Bristol ? ” she said. “ Poor dear, you do see now. 
That is hopeless. You ought to have felt. To rea- 
son out what should have been a flash, is worse than 
not to have understood at all.” 

John, again like all other prigs, was patient with 
those not so gifted as himself. 

“ I daresay you will explain to me what it all 
amounts to,” he said. “ All I am certain of is that 
Berts wanted to read Stevenson’s letters and so got 
into a train, where he would be undisturbed. 
Would n’t it have answered the same purpose if he had 
taken a room at the Paddington hotel ? ” 

Nadine turned to Berts. 

“ Oh, Berts, that would have been rather lovely,” 
she said. 

“ Not at all,” said he. “ I wanted the sense of 
travel.” 

John got up. 

“ Then I should have recommended the Under- 
ground,” he said. “ You could have gone round and 
round until you had finished. It would have been 
much cheaper.” 

Nadine waved impotent arms of despair. 

“ Now you have spoiled it,” she said. “ There was 
a possibility in the Paddington hotel, which sounds so 
remote. But the Underground! You might as well 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


64 

say, why do I bathe, I who cannot swim? I can get 
clean in a bath, though I only get dirty in the sea, and 
if I want the salt I can put Tiddle-de-wink salt or 
whatever the name is in my bath — ” 

“ Tidman,” said John. 

“ I am sure you are right, though who cares ? I 
am knocked down by cold waves, I am cut by stones 
on my soles. I am pinched by crabs and homards, at 
least I think I am; the wind gnaws at my bones, and 
my hair is as salt as almonds. Between my toes is 
sand, and bits of seaweed make me a plaster, and my 
stockings fall into rock-pools, but do I go with rap- 
ture to have a bath in the bathroom? I hate wash- 
ing. There is nothing so sordid as to wash my face, 
except to brush my teeth. But to bathe in the sea 
makes me think: it gives me romance. Poor John, 
you never get romance. You amass information, and 
make a Blue Book. But we all, we make blue moun- 
tains, which we never reach. If we reached them they 
would probably turn out to be green. As it is, they 
are always blue, because they are beyond. It is sug- 
gestion that we seek, not attainment. To attain is 
dull, to aspire is the sugar and salt of life. Don’t 
you see? To realize an ideal is to lose the ideal. It 
is like a man growing rich : he never sees his 
sovereigns : when he has gained them he flings them 
forth again into something further. If he left them 
in a box, the real sovereigns, under his bed, what 
chance would there be for him to grow rich? But 
out they go, he never uses them, except that he makes 
them breed. It is the same with the riches of the 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 65 

mind. An idea, an ideal is yours. Do you keep it? 
Personally you do. But we, no. We invest it again. 
It is to our credit, at this bank of the mind. We do 
not hoard it, and spend it piecemeal. We put it into 
something else. What I have perceived in music, I 
put into plays: what I have perceived in plays I put 
into pictures. I never let it remain at home. But 
when I shall be a millionaire of the mind, what, what 
then? Yes, that makes me pause. Perhaps it will all 
be converted, as they convert bonds, is it not, and I 
shall put it all into love. Who knows, La-la.” 

Nadine paused a moment, but nobody spoke. Hugh 
was watching her with the absorption that was always 
his when she was there. But after a moment she 
spoke again. 

“ We talk what you call rot,” she said. “ But it is 
not rot. The people who always talk sense arrive at 
less. There are sparks that fly, as when you strike 
one flint with another. Your English philosophers — 
who are they ? — Mr. Chesterton I suppose, is he not 
a philosopher ? — or some Machiavelli or other, they 
sit down soberly to think, and when they have thought 
they wrap up their thought in paradox, as you wrap 
up a pill for your dog, so that he swallows it, and his 
inside becomes bitter. That is not the way. You 
must start with pure enjoyment, and when a thought 
comes, you must fling it into the air. They hit a 
bird, or turn into a rainbow, or fall on your head — but 
what matter? You others sit and think, and when 
you have thought of something you put it in a beastly 
book, and have finished with it. You prigs turn the 


66 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


world topsy-turvy that way. You do not start with 
joy, and you go forth in a slough of despondent in- 
formation. Ah, yes: the child who picks up a match 
and rubs it against something and finds it catches fire 
removes the romance of the match, more than Mr. 
Bryant and May and Boots is it ? who made the match. 
Matches are made on earth, but the child who knows 
nothing about them and strikes one is the person who is 
in heaven. You are not content with the wonder and 
romance of the world, you prefer to explain the rain- 
bow away instead of looking at it. It is a sort of 
murder to explain things away: you kill their souls, 
and demonstrate that it is only hydrogen.” 

She looked up at Hugh. 

“We talked about it last night,” she said. “We 
settled that it was a great misfortune to understand 
too well — ” 

A footman arrived at this moment with a telegram 
which he handed to Berts, who opened it. He gave a 
shout of laughter and passed it to Nadine. 

“ What shall I say ? ” he asked. 

“ But of course ‘ yes/ ” she said. “ It is quite un- 
necessary to ask Mama.” 

Berts scribbled a couple of words on the reply-paid 
form. 

“ It ’s only my mother,” he said in general explana- 
tion. “ She wants to come over for a day or two, 
and see Aunt Dodo again, but she does n’t feel sure if 
Aunt Dodo wants to see her. Are you sure there ’s 
a room, Nadine?” 

“ There always is some kind of room,” said Nadine. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


67 

“ She can sleep in three-quarters of my bed, if not. ,, 

“ I ’m so glad she is tired of being a silly ass, as 
we settled she was last night,” said Berts. “ Perhaps 
I ought to ask Aunt Dodo, Nadine.” 

“ Pish-posh,” said Nadine. 

John got up, and prig-like had the last word. 

“ I see all about the clan,” he said. “ You have a 
quantity of vague enthusiasm, and a lack of informa- 
tion. You swim like jelly-fish without any sense of 
direction, and admire each other.” 

Nadine considered this. 

“ I do see what he means,” she said. 

“ And don’t live what you mean,” added John. 


CHAPTER III 


HIS sojourn at Meering in the month of June, 



when London and its diversions were at their 


midmost, was Nadine’s plan. Whatever Nadine was 
or was not, she was not a poseuse, and her contention 
that it was a waste of time to spend all day in talking 
to a hundred people who did not really matter, and in 
dancing all night with fifty of them, was absolutely 
genuine. 

“ As long as anything amuses you,” she had said, 
“ it is not wagte of time ; but when you begin to won- 
der if it really amuses you, it shows that it does not. 
Darling Mama, may I go down to Meering for a 
week or ten days? I do not want any one to come, 
but if anybody likes to come, we might have a little 
cheerful party. Besides it is Coronation next week, 
and great corvee! I think it is likely that Esther 
would wish to escape and perhaps one or two others, 
and it would be enchanting at Meering now. It 
would be a rest cure; a very curious sort of rest, 
since we shall probably never cease bathing and talk- 
ing and reading. But anyhow we shall not be tired 
over things that bore us. That is the true fatigue. 
You are never tired as long as you are interested, but 
I am not interested in the Coronation.” 


68 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 69 

Nadine’s solitary week had proved in quality to be 
populous, and in quantity to exceed the ten days, and 
it was already beginning to be doubtful if July would 
see any of them settled in London again. Dodo’s 
house in Portman Square had been maintained in a 
state of habitableness with a kitchenmaid to cook, and 
a housemaid to sweep, and a footman to wait, and a 
chauffeur to drive, and an odd man to do whatever 
the other servants did n’t, and occasionally one or two 
of the party made a brief excursion there for a couple 
of nights, if any peculiar attraction beckoned. The 
whole party had gone up for a Shakespeare ball at the 
Albert Hall, but had returned next day, and Dodo had 
hurried to St. Paul’s Cathedral to attend a thanks- 
giving service, especially since she, on leaving Lon- 
don, had taken a season ticket, being convinced she 
would be continuously employed in rushing up and 
down. Subsequently she had defrauded the railway- 
company by lending it, though strictly non-transfer- 
able, to any member of the party who wished to make 
the journey, with the result that Bertie had been asked 
by a truculent inspector whether he was really Princess 
Waldenech. His passionate denial of any such iden- 
tity had led to a lesser frequency of these excursions. 

Nadine with the same sincerity had mapped out for 
herself a course of study at Meering, and she read 
Plato every afternoon in the original Greek, with an 
admirable translation at hand, from three o’clock till 
five. During these hours she was inaccessible, and 
when she emerged rather flushed sometimes from the 
difficulty of comprehending what some of the dia- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


70 

logues were about, she was slightly Socratic at tea, 
and tried to prove, as Dodo said, that the muse of 
Mr. Harry Lauder was the same as the muse of Sir 
George Alexander, and that she ought to be rude to 
Hugh if she loved him. She was extremely clear- 
headed in her reason, and referred them to the Sym- 
posium and the dialogue on Lysis, to prove her point. 
But as nobody thought of contradicting her, since the 
Socratic mood soon wore off, they did not attempt to 
find out the Hellenic equivalents for those amazing 
doctrines. 

She was markedly Socratic this afternoon, when 
the whole party were having tea on the lawn. Esther 
and Bertie had been down to bathe after lunch, and 
since everybody was going to bathe again after tea, 
they had left their clothes behind different rocky 
screens above the probable high-water level on the 
beach, and were clad in bathing-dress, moderately 
dried in the sun, with dressing-gowns above. Berts 
had nothing in the shape of what is called foot-gear 
on his feet, since it was simpler to walk up barefoot, 
and he was wriggling his toes, one after the other, in 
order to divest them of an excess of sand. 

“But pain and pleasure are so closely conjoined,” 
said Nadine, in answer to an exclamation of his con- 
cerning stepping in a gorse-bush. “ It hurts you to 
have a prickle in your foot, but the pleasure of taking 
it out compensates for the pain! ” 

“That’s Socratic,” said Hugh, “when they took 
off his chains just before they hemlocked him. You 
did n’t think of that, Nadine.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


7 1 

“ I did n’t claim to, but it is quite true. There is 
actual pleasure in the cessation of pain. If you are 
unhappy and the cause of your unhappiness is re- 
moved, your happiness is largely derived from the 
fact that you were unhappy. For instance, did you 
ever have a fish-bone stick in your throat, Hugh? ” 

“ As a matter of fact, never,” said Hugh. “ But as 
I am meant to say ‘ yes,’ I will.” 

“ And did you cough ? ” 

“ Violently,” said Hugh. 

“ Upon which the fish-bone returned to your 
mouth ? ” 

“ No,” said Hugh. “ I swallowed it. It never re- 
turned at all.” 

“ It does not matter which way it went,” said 
Nadine; “but your feeling of pleasure at its going 
was dependent on the pain which its sticking gave 
you.” 

“ Is that all ? ” said Hugh. 

“ Does it not seem to you to be proved ? ” 

“ Oh, yes. It was proved long ago. But it ’s a 
pedantic point. The sort of point John would have 
made.” 

He absently whistled the first two lines of “ Am 
Stillen Herd,” and Nadine was diverted from her 
Platonisms. 

“Ah, that is so much finer than the finished 
‘ Preislied,’ ” she said ; “ he has curled and oiled his 
verse like an Assyrian bull. He and Sachs had 
cobbled at it too much : they had brushed and combed 
it. It had lost something of springtime and sea- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


72 

breeze. A finished work of art has necessarily less 
quality of suggestiveness. Look at the Leonardo 
drawings. Is the ‘ Gioconda ’ ever quite as suggestive ? 
I am rather glad it was stolen. I think Leonardo is 
greater without it.” 

John drew in his breath in a pained manner. 

“ ‘ Mona Lisa 9 was the whole wonder of the 
world,” he said. “ I had sooner the thief had taken 
away the moon. Do you remember — perhaps you 
did n’t notice it — the painting of the circle of rock 
in which she sat ? ” 

“You are going to quote Pater,” said Nadine. 
“ Pray do not : it is a deplorable passage, and though 
it has lost nothing by repetition — for there was noth- 
ing to lose — it shows an awful ignorance of the spirit 
of the Renaissance. The eyelids are not a little 
weary : they are a little out of drawing only.” 

Esther looked across at Berts. 

“ Berts is either out of drawing,” she said, “ or else 
his dressing-gown is. I think both are : he is a little 
too long, and also the dressing-gown is too short. 
They ought to proceed as far as the ankles, but Berts’ 
got a little weary at his knees.” 

“ I barked my knees on those foul rocks,” said 
Berts, examining those injured joints. 

“ Barking them is worse than biting them,” said 
Nadine. 

“ I never bite my knees,” said he. “ It is a greedy 
habit. Worse than doing it to your nails.” 

“ If you are not careful you will talk nonsense,” 
said Nadine. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


73 

“ I don’t agree. If you are not careful you can’t 
talk nonsense. If you want to talk nonsense, you ’ve 
not got to be not careful.” 

“ There are too many ‘ nots,* ” remarked Nadine. 

“ Not at all. If you are careless some sort of idea 
creeps into what you say, and it ceases to be nonsense. 
There are lots of creeping ideas about like microbes, 
any of which spoil it. Hardly anybody can be really 
meaningless for five minutes. That is why the Mad 
Tea Party is a supreme work of art: you can’t attach 
the slightest sense to anything that is said in it.” 

“ The question is what you mean by nonsense,” said 
Nadine. “ Is it what Mr. Bernard Shaw writes in his 
plays, or what Mrs. Humphry Ward writes in her 
books ? They neither mean anything but they are not 
at all alike. In fact they are as completely opposed 
to each other as sense is to nonsense.” 

Berts threw himself back on the turf. 

“ True,” he said. “ But they are neither of them 
nonsense. The lame and the halt and the blind ideas 
creep into both. They both talk sense mortally 
wounded.” 

Esther gave her appreciative sigh. 

“ Oh, Berts, how true ! ” she said. “ I went to a 
play by Mrs. Humphry Ward the other day, or else 
I read a book by Bernard Shaw, I forget which, and 
all the time I kept trying to see what the sense of it 
had been before it had its throat cut. But no one 
ever tried to see what Alice in Wonderland meant, or 
what Aunt Dodo means.” 

“ Mama is wonderful,” said Nadine. “ She lives 


74 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

up to what she says, too. Her whole life has been 
complete nonsense. I do hope Jack will persuade her 
to do the most ridiculous thing of all, and marry 
him.” 

“ Is that why he is coming? ” asked Esther. 

“ Oh, I hope so. It would be the greatest and most 
absurd romance of the century.” 

Hugh was eating sugar meditatively out of the 
sugar basin. 

“ I don’t see that you have any right to lay down 
the law about nonsense, Nadine,” he said. “ You are 
constantly reading Plato, and making arguments, 
which are meant to be consecutive.” 

“ I do that to relax my mind,” said Nadine. 
“ Berts is quite right. Nonsense is not the absence 
of sense, but the negative of sense, just as sugar is 
the negative of salt. To get non-salt with your egg, 
you must eat sugar with it, not only abstain from salt.” 

“ You will get a remarkably nasty taste,” remarked 
John. 

“ Dear John, nobody ever wronged you so much as 
to suggest that you would like nonsense. When was 
Leonardo born ? And how old was he when he died ? 
And how many golden crowns did Francis of France 
give him for the ‘ Gioconda’? Your mind is full of 
interesting facts. That is why you are so tedious. 
You are like the sand they used to put on letters, 
which instantly made it dry.” 

Berts got up. 

“ We will go and bathe again,” he said, “ and John 
shall remain on the beach and look older than the 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


75 

rocks he sits among. The rocks by the way are old 
red sandstone. They will blossom as the rose when 
Granite John sits among them. His is the head on 
which all the beginnings of the world have come, and 
he is never weary. Dear me, if I was not a teeto- 
taller I should imagine I was drunk. I think it is the 
sea. What a heavenly time the man who stole the 
‘ Gioconda ’ must have had. He just took it away. 
I can imagine him going to the Abbey at the Corona- 
tion, and taking away the King’s crown. There is 
genius, and it is also nonsense. It is pure nonsense 
to imagine going to the Louvre and taking ‘la Gio- 
conda ’ away.” 

“ I wonder what he has done with it,” said Nadine. 
“ I think he must be a jig-saw puzzle maniac, and 
have felt compelled to cut it up. Probably the Louvre 
will receive bits of it by registered post. The nose 
will come, and then some rocks, and then a rather 
weary eyelid. I think John stole it : he was absorbed 
in jig-saw puzzles all morning. Now that seems to 
me nonsense.” 

“ Wrong again,” said Berts. “ When it is put to- 
gether it is sense. If people cut up the pictures and 
then threw the bits away, it might be nonsense. But 
they keep the pieces and these become the picture 
again.” 

“ The process of cutting it up is nonsense,” said 
Nadine. 

“ Yes, and the process of putting it together is non- 
sense,” said Esther. 

“And the two make sense,” said Berts. “Let’s 


;6 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

go and bathe. Nadine, take down some proper book, 
and read to us in the intervals.” 

“ ‘ Pride and Prej ? ’ ” said Nadine. 

“ Oh, do you think so ? Not good for the sea-shore. 
Why not 6 Poems and Ballads’ ? ” 

“ John will be shocked/’ said Nadine. 

“ Not at all. He will be old red sandstone. I 
know Aunt Dodo has a copy. I think Mr. Swin- 
burne gave it her,” said Esther. 

“ She may value it,” said Nadine. “ And it may 
fall into the sea.” 

“ Not if you are careful. Besides, that would be 
rather suitable. Swinburne loved the sea, and also 
understood it. I think his spirit would like it, if a 
copy was drowned.” 

“ But Mama’s spirit would n’t,” said Nadine. 

On the moment of her mentioned name Dodo ap- 
peared at the long window of the drawing-room that 
opened upon the lawn. Simultaneously there was 
heard the buzz of a motor-car stopping at the front 
door just round the corner. 

“Oh, all you darlings,” said Dodo, in the style of 
the ‘ Omnia opera,’ “ are you going to bathe, or have 
you bathed? Berts, dear, we know that above the 
knee comes the thigh, without your showing us. 
Surely there are bigger dressing-gowns somewhere? 
Of course it does not matter : don’t bother, and you ’ve 
got beautiful legs, Berts.” 

“ Are n’t they lovely ? ” said Esther. “ They 
ought to be put in plaster of Paris.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


77 

“ But if you have bathed, why not dress ? ” said 
Dodo; “ and if you haven’t, why undress at pres- 
ent?” 

“ Oh, but it ’s both,” said Berts, “ and so is Esther. 
We have bathed, and are going to do it again, as soon 
as we ’ve eaten enough tea.” 

Dodo looked appreciatively round. 

“You refreshing children!” she said. “If I 
bathed directly after tea I should turn blue and green 
like a bruise. I have wasted all afternoon in look- 
ing at a box of novels from Melland’s. I don’t know 
what has happened to the novelists: their only object 
seems to tell you about utterly dull and sordid people. 
There is no longer any vitality in them : they are like 
leaders in the papers, full of reliable information. 
One instance shocked me : the heroine in ‘ No. 1 1 
Lambeth Walk ’ went to Birmingham by a train that 
left Euston at 2 130 p . m . and her ticket cost nine 
shillings and twopence halfpenny. An awful mis- 
giving seized me that it was all true and I rang for an 
A.B.C. and looked out Birmingham. It was so: 
there was a train at that hour and the tickets cost 
exactly that.” 

“ How wretched ! ” said Nadine in a pained voice. 

“ Darling, don’t take it too much to heart. And 
one of those novels was about Home Rule and an- 
other about Soap, and another about Tariff Reform, 
and a fourth about Christianity, which was absolutely 
convincing. But one does n’t go to a novel in order 
to learn Christianity, or soap-making. One reads 
novels in order to be entertained and escape from real 


78 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

life into the society of imaginary and fiery people. 
Another one — ” 

Dodo stopped suddenly, as a man came out of the 
drawing-room window. Then she held both her 
hands out. 

“ Ah, Jack,” she said. “ Welcome, welcome!” 

A very kind face, grizzled as to the hair and 
mustache, looked down on her from its great height, 
a face that was wonderfully patient and reasonable 
and trustworthy. Jack Chester ford wore his years 
well, but he wore them all; he did not look to be on 
the summer side of forty-five. He was spare still: 
life had not made him the unwilling recipient of the 
most voluminous and ironic of its burdens, obesity, 
but his movements were rather slow and deliberate, as 
if he was tired of the senseless repetition of the days. 
But there seemed to be no irritation mingled with his 
fatigue: he but yawned and smiled, and turned over 
fresh pages. 

But at the moment, as he stood there with both 
Dodo’s hands in his, there was no appearance of wear- 
iness, and indeed it would have been a man of dough 
who remained uninspired by the extraordinary perfec- 
tion and cordiality of her greeting. It was almost as 
if she welcomed a lover: it was quite as if she wel- 
comed the best of friends long absent. That she had 
thought out the manner of her salutation, said nothing 
against its genuineness, but she could have welcomed 
him quite as genuinely in other modes. She had 
thought indeed of putting pathos, penitence, and 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


79 

shamefacedness into her greeting: she could with real 
emotion to endorse it have just raised her eyes to his 
and let them fall again, as if conscious of the need of 
forgiveness. Or (with perhaps a little less genuine- 
ness) she could have adopted the matronly and ‘too 
late ’ attitude ; but this would have been less genuine 
because she did not feel at all matronly, or think that 
it was in the least ‘ too late.’ But warm and un- 
mixed cordiality, with no consciousness of things be- 
hind, was perhaps the most genuine and least compli- 
cated of all welcomes, and she gave it. 

She did not hold his hands more than a second or 
two, for Nadine and others claimed them. But after 
a few minutes he and Dodo were alone again to- 
gether, for Jack declined the invitation to join the 
bathers, on the plea of senility and feeling cold like 
David. Then when the noise of their laughter and 
talk had faded seawards, he dropped the trivialities 
that till now had engaged them, and turned to her. 

“ I have been a long time coming, Dodo,” he said. 
“ Indeed, I meant never to come at all. But I could 
not help it. I do not think I need explain either why 
I stopped away or why I have come now.” 

Apart from the perfectly authentic pleasure that 
Dodo felt in seeing her old friend again, there went 
through her a thrill of delight at Jack’s implication of 
what she was to him. She loved to have that power 
over a man; she loved to know how potent over him 
still was the spell she wielded. In days gone by she 
had not behaved well to him; it would be truer to 
acknowledge that she had behaved just as outrage- 


8o 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


ously as was possible for anybody not a pure-bred 
fiend. But he had come back. It was unnecessary 
to explain why. 

And then suddenly with the rush of old memories 
revived, memories of his unfailing loyalty to her, his 
generosity, his unwearying loving-kindness, her eyes 
grew dim, and her hands caught his again. 

“ Jack dear,” she said, “ I want to say one thing. 
I am sorry for all I did, for my — my treachery, my 
— my damnedness. I was frightened : I have no 
other excuse. And, my dear, I have been punished. 
But I tell you, that what hurts most is your coming 
here — your forgiveness.” 

She had not meant to say any of this; it all be- 
longed to one of the welcomes of him which she had 
rejected. But the impulse was not to be resisted. 

“ It is so,” she said with mouth that quivered. 

“ Wipe it all out, Dodo,” he said. “ We start 
again to-day.” 

Dodo’s power of rallying from perfectly sincere at- 
tacks of emotion was absolutely amazing and quite 
unimpaired. Only for five seconds more did her 
gravity linger. 

“ Dear old Jack,” she said. “ It is good to see you. 
Oh, Jack, the gray hairs. What a lot, but they be- 
come you, and you look just as kind and big as ever. 
I used to think it would be so dreadful when we were 
all over forty, but I like it quite immensely, and the 
young generation are such ducks, and I am not the 
least envious of them. But aren’t some of them 
weird? I wonder if we were as weird; I was always 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


81 


weirdish, I suppose, and I ’m too old to change now. 
But I ’ve still got one defect, though you would hardly 
believe it: I can’t get enough into the day, and I 
haven’t learned how to be in two places at once. 
But I have just had three telephone lines put into my 
house in town. Even that is n’t absolutely satisfac- 
tory, because the idea was to talk to three people at 
once, and I quite forgot that I had n’t three ears. I 
really ought to have been one of the people in the 
Central Exchange, who give you the wrong number. 
You must feel really in the swim, if you are the go- 
between of everybody who wants to talk to every- 
body else; but I should want to talk to them all. 
Have you had tea? Yes? Then let us go down to 
the sea, because I must have a bathe before dinner. — 
Oh, by the way, Edith is coming to-night. I have 
not seen her yet. You and she were the remnant of 
the old guard who would n’t surrender, Jack, but 
went on sullenly firing your muskets at me. I forgot 
Mrs. Vivian, but her ear-trumpet seems to make her 
matter less.” 

They went together across the lawn, which that 
morning had been so sweetly bird-haunted, and down 
the steep hillside that led across the sand-dunes to the 
sea. Here a mile of sands was framed between two 
bold headlands that plunged steeply into the sea, and 
Jack and Dodo walked along the firm, shining beach 
towards the huge boulders which had in some remote 
cataclysm been toppled down from the cliff, and 
formed the rocks than which John was so much older. 


82 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Like brown amphibious sheep with fleeces of seaweed 
they lay grazing on the sands, and dotted about in the 
water, and from the end of them a long reef of cruel- 
forked rocks jutted out a couple of hundred yards 
into the sea. Higher up on the beach were more 
monstrous fragments, as big as cottages, behind which 
the processes of dressing and undressing of bathers 
could discreetly and invisibly proceed. Dodo had for- 
gotten about this and talking rapidly was just about 
to advance round one of them when an agonized trio 
of male voices warned her what sight would meet her 
outraged eyes. The tide was nearly at its lowest and 
but a little way out, at the side of the reef, these rocks 
ended altogether, giving place to the wrinkled sand, 
and in among them were delectable rock-pools with 
torpid strawberry-looking anemones, and sideways- 
scuttling crabs with a perfect passion for self-efface- 
ment, which, if effacement was impossible, turned 
themselves into wide-pincered grotesques, and tried to 
make themselves look tall. Bertie and Esther who 
were already prepared for the bathe were pursuing 
marine excavations in one of these, and Dodo ecstatic- 
ally pulled off her shoes and stockings, one of which 
fell into the rock-pool in question. 

“ Oh, Jack, if you won’t bathe you might at least 
paddle,” she said. “ Berts, do you see that very red- 
faced anemone? Isn’t it like Nadine’s maid? 
Esther, do take care. There ’s an enormous crab 
crept under the seaweed by your foot. Don’t let it 
pinch you, darling: isn’t cancer the Latin for crab? 
It might give you cancer if it pinched you. Here are 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 83 

the rest of them: I must go and put on my bathing- 
dress. It ’s in the tent. I put up a tent for these 
children, Jack, at great expense, and they none of 
them ever use it. Nadine, are you going to read to 
us all in the water ? Do wait till I come. What book 
is it ? 4 Poems and Ballads ? ’ And so suspiciously 

like the copy Mr. Swinburne gave me. Don’t drop it 
into the water more often than is necessary. You 
shall read us ‘ Dolores, our Lady of Pain/ as we step 
on sharp rocks and are pinched by crabs. How Mr. 
Swinburne would have liked to know that we read 
his poems as we bathed. And there ’s that other de- 
licious one ‘ Swallow, my Sister, oh. Sister Swallow/ 
It sounds at first as if his sister was a pill, and he had 
to swallow her. Jack, dear, you make me talk non- 
sense, somehow. Come up with me as far as the tent, 
and while I get ready you shall converse politely from 
outside. It is so dull undressing without anybody to 
talk to.” 

Jack, though cordially invited to take part in the 
usual Symposium in Nadine’s room that night at bed- 
time, preferred to go to his own, though he had no 
intention of going to bed. He wanted to think, to 
ascertain how he felt. He imagined that this would 
be a complicated process ; instead he found it extraor- 
dinarily simple. That there were plenty of things 
to think about was perfectly true, but they all faced 
one way, so to speak, one dominant emotion inspired 
them all. He was as much in love with Dodo as ever. 
He did not, because he could not, consider how 


84 * DODO’S DAUGHTER 

cruelly she had wronged him: all that she had done 
was but a rush-light in the mid-day sun of what she 
was. He was amazed at his stupidity in letting a 
day, not to speak of a year, elapse without seeing her 
since she was free again ; it had been a wanton waste of 
twelve golden months to do so. Often during these 
last two years, he had almost fancied himself in love 
with Nadine; now he saw so clearly why. It was 
because in face and corporal presence no less than in 
mind she reminded him so often of what Dodo had 
been like. She reproduced something of Dodo’s in- 
imitable charm. But now that he saw the two to- 
gether how utterly had the image of Nadine faded 
from his heart. In his affection, in his appreciation 
of her beauty and vitality she was still exactly where 
she was, but out of the book of love her name had 
been quite blotted out. Blotted out, too, were the 
years of his anger and the scars of a bleeding heart, 
and years of indignant suffering. But he had never 
let them take entire possession of him : in his immense 
soul there had ever been alight the still, secret flame 
that no winds or tempests could make to flicker. And 
to-day, at the sight of her, that flame had shot up 
again, a beacon that reached to heaven. 

Hard work had helped him all these years to keep 
his nature unsoured. His great estates- were man- 
aged with a care and consideration for those who 
lived on his land, unequaled in England, and polit- 
ically he had made for himself a name universally re- 
spected for the absolute integrity of which it was the 
guarantee. But all that, so it seemed to him now, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


85 

had been his employment, not his life. His life, all 
these years, had lain like some enchanted and sleep- 
ing entity, waiting for the spell that would awaken it 
again. Now the spell had been spoken. 

For a moment his thought paused, wondering at it- 
self. It seemed incredible that he should be so weak, 
so wax-like. Yet that seemed to matter not at all. 
He might be weak or wax-like, or anything else that 
a man should not be, but the point was that he was 
alive again. 

For a little he let himself drift back upon the sur- 
face of things. He had passed a perfectly amazing 
evening. Edith Arbuthnot had arrived, bringing 
with her a violinist, a viola-player and a ’cellist, but 
neither maid nor luggage. Her luggage, except her 
golf-clubs and a chest containing music (as she was 
only coming for a few days) was certainly lost, but 
she was not sure whether her maid had ever meant 
to come, for she could not remember seeing her at 
the station. So the violinist had her maid’s room 
and the viola-player and ’cellist, young and guttural 
Germans, had quarters found for them in the village, 
since Dodo’s cottage was completely crammed. But 
they had given positively the first performance of 
Edith’s new quartette, and at the end the violinist had 
ceremoniously crowned her with a wreath of laurels 
which he had picked from the shrubbery before 
dinner. Then they went into wild ecstasies of hom- 
age, and drank more beer than would have been 
thought possible, while Edith talked German even 
more remarkably than Dodo, and much louder. With 


86 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


her laurel wreath tilted rakishly over one ear, a mug 
of beer in her hand, and wearing an exceedingly 
smart dinner-gown belonging to Dodo, and rather 
large walking-boots of her own, since nobody else’s 
shoes would fit her, she presented so astounding a 
spectacle, that Jack had unexpectedly been seized with 
a fury of inextinguishable laughter, and had to go 
outside followed by Dodo who patted him on the back. 
When they returned, Edith was lecturing about the 
music they had just heard. Apparently it was im- 
possible to grasp it all at one hearing, while it was 
obviously essential that they must all grasp it without 
delay. In consequence it was performed all over 
again, while she conducted with her wreath on. 
There was more homage and more beer. Then they 
had had charades by Dodo and Edith, and Edith sang 
a long song of her own composition with an immense 
trill on the last note but one, which was ‘ Shake ’ ; 
and her band played a quantity of Siegfried, while 
Dodo with a long white beard made of cotton- wool 
was Wotan, and Edith truculently broke her walking- 
stick, and that was ‘ Spear,’ and they did whatever 
they could remember out of Macbeth, which wasn’t 
much, but which was ‘ Shakespeare.’ 

It was all intensely silly, but Jack knew that he had 
not laughed so much during all those years which to- 
night had rolled away. 

Then he left the surface and dived down into his 
heart again. . . . There was no question of forgiving 
Dodo for the way in which she had treated him: the 
idea of forgiveness was as foreign to the whole ques- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


87 

tion as it would have been to forgive the barometer 
for going down and presaging rain. It could n’t help 
it: it was like that. But in stormy weather and fine, 
in tempest and in the clear shining after rain, he loved 
Dodo. What his chances were he could not at present 
consider, for his whole soul was absorbed in the one 
emotion. 

Jack, for all his grizzled hair and his serious polit- 
ical years, had a great deal about him that was still 
boyish, and with the inconsistency of youth having 
settled that it was impossible to think about his chance, 
proceeded very earnestly to do so. The chance 
seemed a conspicuously outside one. She had had 
more than one opportunity of marrying him before, 
and had felt herself unable to take advantage of it: 
it was very little likely that she would find him de- 
sirable now. Twice already she had embarked on the 
unaccountable sea; both times her boat had foundered. 
Once the sea was made, in her estimate, of cotton- 
wool; the second time, in anybody’s estimate, of 
amorous brandy. It was not to be expected that she 
would experiment again with so unexpected a Pro- 
teus. 

Meantime a parliament of the younger generation 
in Nadine’s room were talking with the frankness 
that characterized them about exactly the same sub- 
ject as Jack was revolving alone, for Dodo had gone 
away with Edith in order to epitomize the last twenty 
years, and begin again with a fresh twenty to-morrow. 

“ It is quite certain that it is Mama he wants to 


88 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


marry and not me,” said Nadine. “ I thought it was 
going to be me. I feel a little hurt, like when one 
is n’t asked to a party to which one does n’t want to 

go” 

“ You don’t want to go to any parties,” said Hugh 
rather acidly, “ but I believe you love being asked to 
them.” 

Nadine turned quickly round to him. 

“ That is awfully unfair, Hughie,” she said in a 
low voice, “ if you mean what I suppose you do. Do 
you mean that ? ” 

“ What I mean is quite obvious,” he said. 

Nadine got up from the window-seat where she 
was sitting with him. 

“ I think we had all better go to bed,” she said. 
“ Hugh is being odious.” 

“If you meant what you said,” he remarked, “ the 
odiousness is with you. It is bad taste to tell one 
that you feel hurt that the Ripper does n’t want you 
to marry him.” 

Nadine was silent a moment. Then she held out 
her hand to him. 

“ Yes, you are quite right, Hugh,” she said. “ It 
was bad taste. I am sorry. Is that enough ? ” 

He nodded, and dropped her hand again. 

“ The fact is we are all rather cross,” said Esther. 
“We have n’t had a look in to-night.” 

“ Mother is quite overwhelming,” said Berts. 
“ She and Aunt Dodo between them make one feel 
exactly a hundred and two years old, as old as John. 
Here we all sit, we old people, Nadine and Esther 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 89 

and Hugh and I, and we are really much more serious 
than they.” 

“ Your mother is serious enough about her music,” 
said Nadine. “And Jack is serious about Mama. 
The fact is that they are serious about serious 
things.” 

“ Do you really think of Mother as a serious per- 
son with her large boots and her laurel-crown ? ” 
asked Berts. 

“ Certainly : all that is nothing to her. She 
does n’t heed it, while we who think we are musical 
can see nothing else. I could n’t bear her quartette 
either, and I know how good it was. I really believe 
that we are rotten before we are ripe. I except 
Hugh.” 

Nadine got up, and began walking up and down 
the room as she did when her alert analytical brain 
was in grips with a problem. 

“ Look at Jack the Ripper,” she said. “ Why, he ’s 
living in high romance, he ’s like a very nice gray- 
headed boy of twenty. Fancy keeping fresh all that 
time! Hugh and he are fresh. Berts is a stale old 
man, who can’t make up his mind whether he wants 
to marry Esther or not. I am even worse. I am 
interested in Plato, and in all the novels about social 
reform and dull people who live in sordid respecta- 
bility, which Mama finds so utterly tedious.” 

Nadine threw her arms wide. 

“ I can’t surrender myself to anybody or anything,” 
she said. “ I can be cool and judge, but I can’t get 
away from my mind. It sits up in a corner like a 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


90 

great governess. Whereas Mama takes up her 
mind like one of those flat pebbles on the shore and 
plays ducks and drakes with it, throws it into the sea, 
and then really enjoys herself, lets herself feel. If 
for a moment I attempt to feel, my mind gives me a 
poke and says ‘ attend to your lessons, Miss Nadine! ’ 
The great Judy! If only I could treat her like one, 
and take her out and throw brickbats at her. But 
I can’t: I am terrified of her; also I find her quite 
immensely interesting. She looks at me over the top 
of her gold-rimmed spectacles, and though she is very 
hard and angular yet somehow I adore her. I loathe 
her you know, and want to escape, but I do like earn- 
ing her approbation. Silly old Judy ! ” 

Berts gave a heavy sigh. 

“ What an extraordinary lot of words to tell us 
that you are an intellectual egoist,” he said. “ And 
you need n’t have told us at all. We all knew it.” 

Nadine gave her hiccup-laugh. 

“ I am like the starling,” she said. “ I can’t get 
out. I want to get out and go walking with Hu£h. 
And he can’t get in. For what a pack of miseries 
was le bon Dieu responsible when he thought of the 
world.” 

“ I should have been exceedingly annoyed if He had 
not thought of me,” said Berts. 

Nadine paused opposite the window-seat, where 
Hugh was sitting silent. 

“ Oh, Hugh,” she said, speaking very low, “ there 
is a real me somewhere, I believe. But I cannot find 
it. I am like the poor thing in the fairy-tale, that 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


9i 

lost its shadow. Indeed I am in the more desperate 
plight, I have got my shadow, but I have lost my sub- 
stance, though not in riotous living.” 

“ For God’s sake find it,” he said, “ and then give 
it me to keep safe.” 

She looked at him, with her dim smile that always 
seemed to him to mean the whole world. 

“ When I find it, you shall have it,” she said. 

“ And last night it was the moon you wanted,” said 
he, “ not yourself.” 

Nadine shrugged her shoulders. 

“ What would you have ? ” she said. “ That was 
but another point of view. Do not ask me to see 
things always from the same standpoint. And now, 
since my mama and Berts have made us all feel 
old, let us put on our night-caps and put some cold 
cream on our venerable faces and go to bed. Per- 
haps to-morrow we shall feel younger.” 


CHAPTER IV 


S EYMOUR STURGIS (who, Berts thought, ought 
to have been drowned when he was a girl) was 
employed one morning in July in dusting his jade. 
He lived in a small flat just ofif Langham Place, with 
a large, capable, middle-aged Frenchwoman, who wor- 
shiped the ground on which he so delicately trod with 
the cloth-topped boots which she made so resplendent. 
She cooked for him in the inimitable manner of her 
race, she kept his flat speckless and shining, she 
valeted him, she did everything in fact except dust 
the jade. Highly as Seymour thought of Antoinette 
he could not let her do that. He always alluded to 
her as “my maid,” and used to take her with him, 
as valet, to country-houses. It must, however, be 
added that he did this largely to annoy, and he largely 
succeeded. 

The room which was adorned by his collection of 
jade, seemed somehow strangely unlike a man’s room. 
A French writing-table stood in the window with a 
writing-case and blotting-book stamped with his 
initials in gilt; by the pen-tray was a smelling-bottle 
with a gold screw-top to it. Thin lace blinds hung 
across the windows, and the carpet was of thick fawn- 
colored fabric with remarkably good Persian rugs 
laid down over it. On the chimney-piece was a Louis 
92 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


93 

Seize garniture of clock and candlesticks, and a 
quantity of invitation cards were stuck into the 
mirror behind. There were half-a-dozen French 
chairs, a sofa, a baby-grand, a small table or two, 
and a book-case of volumes all in morocco dress- 
clothes. On the walls there were a few prints, and 
in glazed cabinets against the wall was the jade. 
Nothing, except perhaps the smelling-bottle, suggested 
a mistress rather than a master, but the whole effect 
was feminine. Seymour rather liked that: he had 
very little liking for his own sex. They seemed to 
him both clumsy and stupid, and his worst enemies 
(of whom he had plenty) could not accuse him of 
being either the one or the other. On their side they 
disliked him because he was not like a man: he dis- 
liked them because they were. 

But while he detested his own sex, he did not re- 
gard the other with the ordinary feeling of a man. 
He liked their dresses, their perfumes, their hair, 
their femininity, more than he liked them. He was 
quite as charming to plain old ladies, even as Dodo 
had said, as he was to girls, and he was perfectly 
happy, when staying in the country, to go a motor 
drive with aunts and grandmothers. He had a per- 
fectly marvelous digestion; ate a huge lunch, sat still 
in the motor all afternoon, and had quantities of but- 
tered buns for tea. He dressed rather too carefully 
to be really well-dressed and always wore a tie and 
socks of the same color, which repeated in a more 
vivid shade the tone of his clothes. He had a large 
ruby ring, a sapphire ring and an emerald ring: they 


94 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

were worn singly and matched his clothes. He 
spoke French quite perfectly. 

All these depressing traits naturally enraged such 
men as came in contact with him, but though they 
abhorred him they could not openly laugh at him, for 
he had a tongue, when he chose, of quite unparalleled 
acidity, and was markedly capable of using it when 
required and taking care of himself afterwards. In 
matters of art, he had a taste that was faultless, and 
his taste was founded on real knowledge and tech- 
nique, so that really great singers delighted to per- 
form to his accompaniment, and in matters of 
jewelry he designed for Cartier. In fact, from the 
point of view of his own sex, he was detestable 
rather than ridiculous, while considerable numbers of 
the other sex did their very best to spoil him, for none 
could want a more amusing companion, and his good 
looks were quite undeniable. But somewhere in his 
nature there was a certain grit which quite refused to 
be ground into the pulp of a spoiled young man. In 
his slender frame, too, there were nerves of steel, and, 
most amazing of all, when not better employed in 
designing for Cartier, or engaged in bloodless flirta- 
tions, he was a first-class golfer. But he preferred 
to go for a drive in the afternoon, and smoke a suc- 
cession of rose-scented cigarettes, which could scarcely 
be considered tobacco at all. He was fond of food, 
and drank a good many glasses of port rather petu- 
lantly, after dinner, as if they were medicine. 

This morning he was particularly anxious that his 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


95 

jade should show to advantage, for Nadine was com- 
ing to lunch with him, to ask his advice about some- 
thing which she thought was old Venetian-point lace. 
He had taken particular pains also about the lunch: 
everything was to be en casserole ; there were eggs 
in spinach, and quails, and a marvelous casseroled 
cherry tart. He could not bear that anything about 
him, whether designed for the inside or the outside, 
should be other than exquisite, and he would have 
been just as sedulous a Martha, if that strange bar- 
barian called Berts was coming, only he would have 
given Berts an immense beefsteak as well. 

The bell of his flat tinkled announcing Nadine. He 
did not like the shrill treble bells, and had got one that 
made a low bubbling note like the laugh of Sir Charles 
Wyndham; and Nadine came in. 

“ Enchanted ! ” he said. “ How is Philistia ? ” 

“ Not being the least glad of you,” she said. " I 
wish I could make people detest me, as Berts de- 
tests you. It shows force of character. Oh, Sey- 
mour, what jade ! It is almost shameless ! Is n’t it 
shameless jade I mean? Is any one else coming to 
lunch?” 

“Of course not. I don’t dilute you with other 
people; I prefer Nadine neat. Now let’s have the 
crisis at once. Bring out the lace.” 

Nadine produced a small parcel and unfolded it. 

“ Pretty,” said he. 

Then he looked at it more closely, and tossed it 
aside. “ I hoped it was more like Venetian point 


96 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

than that,” he said. “It’s all quite wrong: the 
thread ’s wrong : the stitch is wrong : it smells wrong. 
Don’t tell me you’ve bought it.” 

“No, I shan’t tell you,” she said. 

He took it up again and pondered. 

“ You got it at Ducane’s,” he said. “ I remember 
seeing it. Well, take it back to Ducane, and tell him 
if he sold it as Venetian, that he must give you back 
your money. My dear, it is no wonder that these 
dealers get rich, if they can palm off things like that. 
C’est Uni . — Ah, but that is an exquisite aquamarine 
you are wearing. Those little diamond points round 
it throw the light into it. How odd people usually 
are about jewelry. They think great buns of dia- 
monds are sufficient to make an adornment. You 
might as well send up an ox’s hind-leg on the table. 
What makes the difference is the manner of its pre- 
sentation. Who is that lady who employs herself in 
writing passionate love-novels ? She says on page one 
that he was madly in love with her, on page two that 
she was madly in love with him, on page three that 
they were madly in love with each other, and then come 
some asterisks. (How much more artistic, by the 
way, if they printed the asterisks and left out the rest ! 
Then we should know what it really was like.) You 
can appreciate nothing until it is framed or cooked: 
then you can see the details. The poor lady presents 
us with chunks of meat and informs us that they are 
amorous men and women. I will write a novel some 
day, from the detached standpoint, observing and 
noting. Then I shall go away, abroad. It is only 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


97 

bachelors who can write about love. Do you like my 
tie? ” 

Seymour had a trick of putting expression into what 
he said by means of his hands. He waved and dabbed 
with them: they fondled each other, and then started 
apart as if they had quarreled. Sometimes one finger 
pointed, sometimes another, and they were all beauti- 
fully manicured. Antoinette did that, and as she 
scraped and filed and polished, he talked his admirable 
French to her, and asked after the old home in Nor- 
mandy, where she learned to make wonderful soup 
out of carrots and turnips and shin-bones of beef. At 
the moment she came in to announce the readiness 
of lunch. 

“ Oh, is it lunch already ?” said Nadine. “ Can’t 
we have it after half an hour? I should like to see 
the jade.” 

“ Oh, quite impossible,” said he. “ She has taken 
such pains. It would distress her. For me, I should 
prefer not to lunch yet, but she is the artist now. 
They are fragile things, Nadine, eggs in spinach. You 
must come at once.” 

“ How greedy you are,” she said. 

“ For you that is a foolish thing to say. I am 
simply thinking of Antoinette’s pride. It is as if I 
blew a soap-bubble, all iridescent, and you said you 
would come to look at it in ten minutes. You shall 
tell me news : if you talk you can always eat. What 
has happened in Philistia ? ” 

Nadine frowned. 

“ You think of us all as Philistines,” she said, “ be- 


98 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

cause we like simple pleasures, and because we are 
enthusiastic.” 

“Ah, you mistake!” he said. “You couple two 
reasons which have nothing to do with each other. 
To be enthusiastic is the best possible condition, but 
you must be enthusiastic over what is worth enthusi- 
asm. Is it so lovely really, that Aunt Dodo has settled 
to marry the Ripper? Surely that is a rechauffee. 
You wrote me the silliest letter about it. Of course 
it does not matter at all. Much more important is 
that you look perfectly exquisite. Antoinette, the 
spinach is sans pareil: give me some more spinach. 
But it is slightly bourgeois in Jack the R. to have 
been faithful for so many years. It shows want of 
imagination, also I think a want of vitality, only to 
care for one woman.” 

“That is one more than you ever cared for,” re- 
marked Nadine. 

“ I know. I said it was bourgeois to care for one. 
There is a difference. It is also like a troubadour. 
I am not in the least like a troubadour. But I think 
I shall get married soon. It gives one more liberty: 
people don’t feel curious about one any more. Eng- 
lish people are so odd: they think you must lead a 
double life, and if you don’t lead the ordinary double 
life with a wife, they think you lead it with somebody 
else and they get curious. I am not in the least curi- 
ous about other people: they can lead as many lives 
as a piano has strings for all I care, and thump all the 
strings together, or play delicate arpeggios on them. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


99 

Nadine, that hat-pin of yours is simply too divine. I 
will eat it pin and all if it is not Faberge.” 

Nadine laughed. 

“ I can’t imagine you married,” she said. “ You 
would make a very odd husband.” 

“ I would make a very odd anything,” said he. “ I 
don’t find any recognized niche that really fits me, 
whereas almost everybody has some sort of niche. 
Indeed in the course of hundreds of years the niches, 
that is the manners of life, have been evolved to suit 
the sorts of types which nature produces. They live in 
rows and respect each other. But why it should be 
considered respectable to marry and have hosts of 
horrible children I cannot imagine. But it is, and I 
bow to the united strength of middle-class opinion. 
But neither you nor I are really made to live in rows. 
We are Bedouins by nature, and like to see a different 
sunrise every day. There shall be another tent for 
Antoinette.” 

That admirable lady was just bringing them their 
coffee, and he spoke to her in French. 

“ Antoinette, we start for the desert of Sahara to- 
morrow,” he said. “ We shall live in tents.” 

Antoinette’s plump face wrinkled itself up into en- 
chanted smiles. 

“ Bien, m’sieur,” she said. “ A quelle heure?” 

Nadine crunched up her coffee-sugar between her 
white teeth. 

“ You are as little fitted to cross the desert of Sahara 
as any one I ever met,” she said. 


100 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ I should not cross it : I should — ” 

“ You would be miserable without your jade or 
your brocade and the sand would get into your hair, 
and you would have no bath,” she said. “ But every 
one who thinks has a Bedouin mind : it always wants 
me to go on and find new horizons and get nearer to 
blue mountains.” 

“ The matter with you is that you want and you 
don’t know what you want,” said he. 

Nadine nodded at him. Sometimes when she was 
with him she felt as if she was talking to a shrewd 
middle-aged man, sometimes to a rather affected girl. 
Then occasionally, and this had been in evidence to-day, 
she felt as if she was talking to some curious mixture 
of the two, who had a girl’s intuition and a man’s 
judgment. Fond as she was of the friends whom she 
had so easily gathered round her, gleeful as was the 
nonsense they talked, serious as was her study of 
Plato, she felt sometimes that all those sunny hours 
concerned but the surface of her, that, as she had said 
before, the individual, the character that sat behind 
was not really concerned in them. And Seymour, 
when he made mixture of his two types, had the effect 
of making her very conscious of the character that 
sat behind. He had described it just now in a sen- 
tence : it wanted it knew not what. 

“ And I want it so frightfully,” she said. “ It is 
a pity I don’t know what it is. Because then I should 
probably get it. One gets what one wants if one 
wants enough.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


IOI 


“ A convenient theory,” he said, “ and if you don’t 
get it, you account for it by saying you did n’t want 
it enough. I don’t think it ’s true. In any case the 
converse is n’t; one gets a quantity of things which one 
does n’t want in the least. Whereas you ought not to 
get, on the same theory, the things you passionately de- 
sire not to have.” 

Nadine finished her sugar and lit a cigarette. 

“ Oh, don’t upset every theory,” she said. “ I am 
really rather serious about it.” 

He regarded her with his head on one side for a 
moment. “ What has happened is that somebody has 
asked you to do something, and you have refused. 
You are salving your conscience by saying that he 
does n’t want it enough, or you would not have re- 
fused.” 

She laughed. 

“ You are really rather uncanny sometimes,” she 
said. 

“Only a guess,” he said. 

“ Guess again then : define,” she said. 

“ The obvious suggestion is that Hugh has proposed 
to you again.” 

“ You would have been burned as a witch two hun- 
dred years ago,” said she. “ I should have con- 
tributed fagots. Oh, Seymour, that was really why 
I came to see you. I did n’t care two straws about the 
foolish lace. They all tell me I had better marry 
Hugh, and I wanted to find somebody to agree with 
me. I hoped perhaps you might. He is such a dear, 


102 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


you know, and I should always have my own way: 
I could always convince him I was right.” 

“ Most girls would consider that an advantage.” 

“ In that case I am not like most girls ; I often wish 
I was. I wrote an article a month or two ago about 
Tolstoi, and read it him, and he thought it quite won- 
derful. Well, it wasn’t. It was silly rot: I wrote 
it, and so of course I know. It came out in a maga- 
zine.” 

“ I read it,” remarked Seymour in a strictly neutral 
voice. 

“Well, wasn’t it very poor stuff?” asked Nadine. 

“ To be quite accurate,” said Seymour, “ I only 
read some of it. I thought it very poor indeed. It 
was ignorant and affected.” 

Nadine gave him an approving smile. 

“ There you are then ! And with Hugh it would 
be the same in everything else. He would always think 
what I did was quite wonderful. They say love is 
blind, don’t they? So much the worse for love. It 
seems to me a very poor sort of thing if in order to 
love anybody you must lose, with regard to her, any 
power of mind and judgment that you may happen 
to possess. I don’t want to be loved like that. I 
want people to sing my praises with understanding, 
and sit on my defects also with discretion. If I was 
perfectly blind too, I suppose it would be quite ideal 
to marry him. But I ’m not, and I ’m not even sure 
that I wish I was. Again if Hugh was perfectly 
critical about me, it would be quite ideal. It seems 
to me you must have the same quality of love on both 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 103 

sides, or at any rate the same quality of affection. 
People make charming marriages without any love 
at all, if they have affection and esteem and respect 
for each other.” 

They had gone back to the drawing-room and Sey- 
mour was handing pieces of his most precious jade 
to Nadine, who looked at them absently and then gave 
them back to him, with the same incuriousness as peo- 
ple give tickets to be punched by the collector. This 
Seymour bore with equanimity, for Nadine was in- 
teresting on her own account, and he did not care 
whether she looked at his jade or not. But at this 
moment he screamed loudly, for she put a little round 
medallion of exquisitely carved yellow jade up to her 
mouth, as if to bite it. 

“ Oh, Seymour, I ’m so sorry,” she said. “ I was n’t 
attending to your jade, which is quite lovely, and sub- 
consciously this piece appeared like a biscuit. Tell 
me, do you like jade better than anything else? It is 
part of a larger question, which is : ‘Do you like 
things better than people ? * Personally I like people 
so far more than anything else in the world, but I 
don’t like any particular person nearly as much. I 
like them in groups I suppose. If I married at all, I 
should probably be a polyandrist. Certainly if I could 
marry four or five people at once, I should marry them 
all. But I don’t want to marry any one of them.” 

Seymour put the priceless biscuit back into its 
cabinet. 

“ Who,” he asked, “ are this quartette of fortunate 
swains ? ” 


104 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Well, Hugh of course would be one/’ said she, 
“ and I think Berts would be another. And if it 
won’t be a shock to you, you would be the third, and 
Jack the R. would be the fourth. I should then have 
a variety of interests : this would be the world and the 
flesh and the devil, and a saint.” 

“ St. Seymour,” said he, as if trying how it sounded, 
like a Liberal peer selecting his title. 

“ I am afraid you are cast for the devil,” said 
Nadine candidly. “ Berts is the world because he 
thinks he is cynical. And Jack is the flesh — ” 

“Because he is so thin?” 

“ Partly. But also because he is so rich.” 

Seymour turned the key on his jade. This inter- 
ested him much more. But he had to make further 
inquiries. 

“If every girl wanted four husbands,” he said, 
“ there would n’t be enough men to go round.” 

“Round what?” asked Nadine, still entirely ab- 
sorbed in what she was thinking. 

“ Round the marriageable females. Or does your 
plan include poly-womany, whatever the word is, for 
men ? ” 

“ But of course. There are such lots of bachelors 
who would marry if they could have two or three 
wives, just as there are such lots of girls who would 
marry if they could have two or three husbands. All 
those laws about ‘ one man, one wife’ were made by 
ordinary people for ordinary people. And ordinary 
people are in the majority. There ought to be a small 
county set apart for ridiculous people, with a rabbit 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


105 

fence all round it, and any one who could be certified 
to be ridiculous in his tastes should be allowed to go 
and live there unmolested. That would be much better 
than your plan of going to the Sahara with Antoinette. 
You would have to get five householders to certify 
you as ridiculous, in order to obtain admission. Then 
you would do what you chose within the rabbit fence, 
but when you wanted to be what they call sensible 
again you would come out, and be bound to behave 
like anybody else, as long as you were out, under 
penalty of not being admitted again.” 

Seymour considered this. 

“ There ’s a lot in it,” he said, “ and there would 
be a lot of people in the rabbit fence. I should go 
there to-morrow and never come out at all. But a 
smaller county would be no use. I should start with 
Kent, not Rutlandshire, and be prepared to migrate 
to Yorkshire. I accept the position of one of your 
husbands.” 

“ That is sweet of you. I think — ” 

He interrupted. 

“ I shall have some more wives,” he said. “ I 
should like a lunch wife and a dinner wife. I want 
to see a certain kind of person from about mid-day 
till tea-time.” 

“ Is that a hint that it is time for me to go? ” asked 
Nadine. 

“ Nearly. Don’t interrupt. But then, if one is not 
in love with anybody at all, as you are not, and as I 
am not, you want a perfectly different kind of person 
in the evening. To be allowed only one wife, has 


106 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

evolved a very tiresome type of woman ; a woman who 
is like a general servant, and can, so to speak, wait at 
table, cook a little, and make beds. You look for 
somebody who, on the whole, suits you. It is like 
buying a reach-me-down suit, which I have never 
done. It probably fits pretty well. But if it is to be 
worn every day until you die, it must fit absolutely. If 
it does n’t, there are fifty other suits that would do as 
well.” 

“ Translate,” said Nadine. 

“ Surely there is no need. What I mean is that 
occasionally two people are ideally fitted. But the fit 
only occurs intermittently: it is not common. Short 
of that, as long as people don’t blow their noses wrong, 
or walk badly, or admire Carlo Dolci, or fail to ad- 
mire Bach, so long, in fact, as they do not have im- 
possible tastes, any phalanx of a thousand men can 
marry a similar phalanx of a thousand women, and 
be as happy, the one with the other, as with any other 
permutation or combination of the thousand. There 
is a high, big, tremulous, romantic attachment possible, 
and it occasionally occurs. Short of that, with the 
limitation about Carlo Dolci and Bach, anybody would 
be as happy with anybody else, as anybody would be 
with anybody. We are all on a level, except the high- 
est of all, and the lowest of all. Life, not death, is 
the leveler! ” 

“ Still life is as bad as still death,” said she. 

Seymour groaned and waved his hands. 

“ You deserve a good scolding, Nadine, for saying 
a foolish thing like that,” he said. “ You are not with 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 107 

your Philistines now. There is not Esther here to 
tell you how marvelous you are, nor Berts to wave his 
great legs and say you are like the moon coming out 
of the clouds over the sea. I am not in the least im- 
pressed by a little juggling with words such as they 
think clever. It is n’t clever : it is a sort of parrot- 
talk. You open your mouth and say something that 
sounds paradoxical and they all hunt about to find 
some sense in it, and think they do.” 

Seymour got up and began walking up and down 
the room with his little short-stepped, waggling walk. 
“ It is the most amazing thing to me,” he said, “ that 
you, who have got brains, should be content to score 
absurd little successes with your dreadful clan, who 
have the most ordinary intelligences. I love your 
Philistines, but I cannot bear that they should think 
they are clever. They are stupid, and though stupid 
people are excellent in their way, they become trying 
when they think they are wise. You are not made wise 
by bathing all day in the silly salt sea, and reading a 
book — ” 

“ How did you know? ” asked Nadine. 

“ I did n’t : it is merely the sort of thing I imagine 
you do at Meering. Aunt Dodo is different : there is 
no rot about Aunt Dodo, nor is there about Hugh. 
But Esther, my poor sister, and the beautiful Berts! ” 

Nadine took up the cudgels for the dan. 

“Ah, you are quite wrong,” she said. “You do 
us no justice at all. We are eager, we are, really : we 
want to learn, we think it waste of time to spend all 
day and night at parties and balls. We are critical. 


io8 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


and want to know how and why. Seymour, I wish 
we saw more of you. Whenever I am with you, I 
feel like a pencil being sharpened. I can make fine 
marks afterwards.” 

“ Keep them for the clan,” he said. “ No, I can't 
stand the clan, nor could they possibly stand me. 
When Esther squirms and says, ‘ O Nadine, how won- 
derful you are/ I want to be sick, and when I wave 
my hands and talk in a high voice as I frequently do, 
I can see Berts turning pale with the desire to kill me. 
Poor Berts! Once I took his arm and he shuddered 
at my baleful touch. I must remember to do it again. 
Really, I don’t think I can be one of your husbands 
if Berts is to be another.” 

“ Very well : I ’ll leave out Berts,” said she. 

“ This is almost equivalent to a proposal,” said Sey- 
mour in some alarm. 

She laughed. 

“I won’t press it,” she said. “And now I must 
go. Thanks for sharpening me, my dear, though you 
have done it rather roughly. I am going down to 
Meering again to-morrow: London is a mere rabble 
of colonels and colonials. Come down if you feel in- 
clined.” 

“ God forbid ! ” said Seymour piously. 

Nadine had spent some time with him, but long 
after she had gone something of her seemed to linger 
in his room. Some subtle aroma of her, too fine to 
be purely physical, still haunted the room, and the 
sound of her detached crisp speech echoed in the cham- 
bers of his brain. He had never known a girl so 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 109 

variable in her moods: on one day she would talk 
nothing but the most arrant nonsense ; on another, as 
to-day, there mingled with it something extraordinarily 
tender and wistful; on a third day she would be an 
impetuous scholar; on the fourth she threw herself 
heart and soul (if she had a heart) into the gay froth 
of this London life. Indeed “ moods ” seemed to be 
too superficial a word to describe her aspects: it was 
as if three or four different personalities were lodged 
in that slim body or directed affairs from the cool 
brain in that small poised head. It would be 
scarcely necessary to marry other wives, according to 
their scheme, if Nadine was one of them, for it was 
impossible to tell even from minute to minute with 
which of her you were about to converse, or which of 
her was coming down to dinner. But all these per- 
sonalities had the same vivid quality, the same exuber- 
ance of vitality, and in whatever character she ap- 
peared she was like some swiftly acting tonic, that 
braced you up and, unlike mere alcoholic stimulant, 
was not followed by a reaction. She often irritated 
him, but she never resented the expression of his im- 
patience, and above all things she was never dull. 
And for once Seymour left incomplete the dusting of 
the precious jade, and tried to imagine what it would 
be like to have Nadine always here. He did not suc- 
ceed in imagining it with any great vividness, but it 
must be remembered that this was the first time he 
had ever tried to imagine anything of the kind. 

Edith had left Meering with Dodo two days before 


no 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


and was going to spend a week with her in town since 
she was rather tired of her own house. But she had 
seen out of the railway-carriage window on the north 
coast of Wales, so attractive-looking a golf-links, that 
she had got out with Berts at the next station, to have 
a day or two golfing. The obdurate guard had re- 
fused to take their labeled luggage out, and it was 
whirled on to London to be sent back by Dodo on 
arrival. But Edith declared that it gave her a sense 
of freedom to have no luggage, and she spent two 
charming days there, and had arrived in London only 
this afternoon. She had gone straight to Dodo’s 
house, and had found Jack with her and then learned 
the news of their engagement which had taken place 
only the day before. Upon which she sprang up and 
remorselessly kissed both Dodo and Jack. 

“ I can’t help it if you don’t like it,” she said ; “ but 
that ’s what I feel like. Of course it ought to have 
happened more than twenty years ago, and it would 
have saved you both a great deal of bother. Dodo, 
I have n’t been so pleased since my mass was per- 
formed at the Queen’s Hall. You must get married 
at once, and must have some children. It will be 
like living your life all over again without any of 
those fatal mistakes, Dodo. Jack — I shall call you 
Jack now — Jack, you have been more wonderfully 
faithful than anybody I ever heard of. You have 
seen all along what Dodo was, without being put off 
by what she did — ” 

Dodo screamed with laughter. 

“ Are these meant to be congratulations? ” she said. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


hi 


“ It is the very oddest way to congratulate a man on 
his engagement, by telling him that he is so wise to 
overlook his future wife’s past. It is also so pleasant 
for me.” 

Edith was still shaking hands with them both, as 
if to see whether their hands were fixtures or would 
come off if violently agitated. 

“ You know what I mean,” she said. “ It is use- 
less my pretending to approve of most things you 
have done: it is useless for Jack also. But he mar, 
ries the essential you, not a parcel of actions.” 

Jack kept saying “ Thanks awfully ” at intervals, 
like a minute gun, and trying to get his hand away. 
Eventually Edith released it. 

“ I am delighted with you both,” she said. “ And 
to think that only a fortnight ago I was still not on 
speaking terms with you, Dodo, And Jack was n’t 
either. I love having rows with people if I know 
things are going to come straight afterwards, because 
then you love them more than ever. And I knew that 
some time I should have to make it up with you, Dodo, 
though if I was Jack I don’t think I could have for- 
given — ■ well, you don’t wish me to go on about that. 
Anyhow, you are ducks, and I shall leave the young 
couple alone, and have a wash and brush-up. I have 
been playing golf quite superbly.” 

Edith banged the door behind her, and they heard 
her shrilly whistling as she went off down the passages. 

Then Dodo turned to Jack. 

“Jack, dear, I thought I should burst when Edith 


1 12 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

kissed you,” she said. “ You half shut your eyes and 
screwed up your face like a dog that is just going to 
be whipped. But I love Edith. Now come and sit 
here and talk. I have hardly seen you, since — well, 
since we settled that we should see a good deal more 
of each other in the future. I want you to tell me, 
oh, such lots of things. How often a month on the 
average have you thought about me during all these 
years? Jack, dear, I want to be wanted, so much.” 

“ You have always been wanted by me,” he said. 
“ It is more a question of how many minutes in the 
month I have n’t thought about you. They are easily 
counted.” 

He sat down on the sofa by her, as her hand in- 
dicated. 

“ Dodo,” he said, “ I don’t make demands of you, 
except that you should be yourself. But I do want 
that. We are all made differently: if we were not 
the world would be a very stupidly simple affair. And 
you must know that in one respect anyhow I am ap- 
pallingly simple. I have never cared for any woman 
except you. That is the fact. Let us have it out 
between us just once. I have never worn my heart 
on my sleeve, for any woman to pluck at, and carry 
away a mouthful of. There are no bits missing, I 
assure you. It is all there, and it is all yours. It is 
in no way the worse for wear, because it has had no 
wear. I feel as if — ” 

Jack paused a moment : he knew the meaning of his 
thought, but found it not so easy to make expression 
of it. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


ii3 

“ I feel as if I had been sitting all my life at a 
window in my heart,” he said, “ looking out, and wait- 
ing for you to come by. But you had to come by 
alone. You came by once with my cousin. You came 
by a second time with Waldenech. You were bored 
the first time, you were frightened the second time. 
But you were not alone. I believe you are alone now : 
I believe you look up to my window. Ah, how stupid 
all language is! As if you looked up to it! ” 

Dodo was really moved, and when she spoke her 
voice was unsteady. 

“ I do look up to it, Jack,” she said. “ Oh, my dear, 
how the world would laugh at the idea of a woman 
already twice married, having romance still in front 
of her. But there is romance, Jack. You see — you 
see you have run through my life just as a string runs 
through a necklace of pearls or beads: beads perhaps 
is better — yet I don’t know. Chesterford gave me 
pearls, all the pearls. A necklace of pearls before 
swine shall we say? I was swine, if you understand. 
But you always ran through it all, which sounds as if 
I meant you were a spendthrift, but you know what I 
do mean. Really I wonder if anybody ever made a 
worse mess of her life than I have done, and found it 
so beautifully cleaned up in the middle. But there you 
were — I ought to have married you originally : I 
ought to have married you unoriginally. But I never 
trusted my heart. You might easily tell me that I 
hadn’t got one, but I had. I daresay it was a very 
little one, so little that I thought it did n’t matter. I 
suppose I was like the man who swore something or 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


114 

other, on the crucifix, and when he broke his oath, he 
said the crucifix Was such a small one.” 

She paused again. 

“Jack, are you sure?” she asked. “I want you 
to have the best life that you can have. Are you sure 
you give yourself the best chance with me? My dear, 
there will be no syllable of reproach, on my lips or in 
my mind, if you reconsider. You ought to marry a 
younger woman than me. You will be still a man at 
sixty, I shall be just a thing at fifty-eight.” 

Dodo took a long breath and stood up. 

“ Marry Nadine,” she said. “ She is so like what 
I was : you said it yourself. And she has n’t been 
battered like me. I think she would marry you. I 
know how fond she is of you, anyhow, and the rest 
will follow. I can’t bear to think of you pushing my 
Bath chair. God knows, I have spoiled many of your 
years. But, God knows, I don’t want to spoil more 
of them. She will give you all that I could have given 
you twenty years ago. Ah, my dear, the years. How 
cruel they are ! How they take away from us all that 
we want most! You love children, for instance, Jack. 
Perhaps I shall not be able to give you children. Na- 
dine is twenty-one. That is a long time ago. You 
should consider. I said £ yes ’ to you yesterday, but 
perhaps I had not thought about it sufficiently. I have 
thought since. Before you came down to Meering 
I was awake so long one night, wondering why you 
came. I was quite prepared that it should be Nadine 
you wanted. And, oh, how gladly I would give Nadine 
to you, instead of giving myself : I should see : I should 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


H5 

understand. At first I thought that I should not like 
it, that I should be jealous, to put it quite frankly, of 
Nadine. But somehow now that I know that your 
first desire was for me, I am jealous no longer. 
Take Nadine, Jack! I want you to take Nadine. It 
will be better. We know each other well enough to 
trust each other, and now that I tell you that there will 
be nothing but rejoicing left in my heart, if you want 
Nadine, you must believe that I tell you the entire 
truth. I know very well about Nadine. She will not 
marry Hugh. She wants somebody who has a bigger 
mind. She wants also to put Hugh out of the ques- 
tion. She does not mean to marry him, and she 
would like it to be made impossible. Woo Nadine, 
dear Jack, and win her. She will give you all I could 
once have given you, all that I ought to have given 
you.” 

At that moment Dodo was making the gr<eat renun- 
ciation of her life. She had been completely stirred 
out of herself and she pleaded against her own cause. 
She was quite sincere and she wanted Jack’s happiness 
more than her own. She believed even while she re- 
nounced all claim on him, that her best chance of hap- 
piness was with him, for it had taken her no time at 
all to make up her mind when he proposed to her 
yesterday. And she had not exaggerated when just 
now she told him that he ran through her life like a 
string that keeps the beads of time in place. She had 
never felt for another man what she had felt for him, 
and her declaration of his freedom was a real renunci- 
ation, made impulsively but most generously and com- 


n6 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


pletely. She really meant it, and she did not pause to 
consider that the offer was one of which no man could 
conceivably take advantage. And Jack felt and knew 
her sincerity. 

“ You are absolutely free, my dear,” she said. 
“ Absolutely ! And I will come to your wedding, and 
dance at it if you like, for joy that you are happy.” 

He got up too. 

“ There will be no wedding unless you come to it,” 
he said. “ Dance at it, Dodo, but marry me. Nobody 
else will do.” 

Dodo looked him full in the face. 

“ Edith was quite right to remind you of — of what 
I have done,” she said. 

“ And I am quite right to forget it,” said he. 

She shook her head, smiling a little tremulously. 

“ Oh, Jack,” she said in a sigh. 

He took her close to him. 

“ My beloved,” he said, and kissed her. 


CHAPTER V 


D ODO’S wedding, which took place at the end 
of July in Westminster Abbey, was a very re- 
markable and characteristic affair. In the first place 
she arrived so late that people began to wonder 
whether she was going to throw Jack over again, this 
time at the very last moment. Jack himself did not 
share these misgivings and stood at the west door 
rather hot and shy but quite serene, waiting till his 
bride should come. Eventually Nadine who was to 
have come with her mother appeared in a taxi going 
miles above the legal limit, with the information that 
Dodo was in floods of tears because she had been so 
horrible to Jack before, and wanted to be so nice now. 
She said she would stop crying as soon as she possibly 
could, but would Nadine ask Jack to be a dear and 
put off the wedding till to-morrow, since her tears had 
made her a perfect fright. On which the bridegroom 
took a card and wrote on it : “ I won’t put off the 
wedding, and if you don’t come at once, I shall go 
away. Do be quick: there are millions and millions 
of people all staring.” 

“ Oh, Jack, what a brute you are,” said Nadine, as 
she read it, “ I don’t think I can take it.” 

“ You can and will,” said he. “ You will also take 
Dodo by the hand and bring her here. Bring her, do 
ii 7 


1 18 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

you understand? Tell her that in twenty minutes 
from now I shall go.” 

Somehow Dodo’s marriage had seized the popular 
imagination, and the Abbey was crammed, so also for 
half a mile were the pavements. The traffic by the 
Abbey had been diverted, and all round the windows 
were clustered with sight-seers. The choir was re- 
served for the more intimate friends, and Bishop Algie 
who was to perform the ceremony was endorsed by 
a flock of eminent clergy. The news that Dodo was 
in tears, but that Nadine had been sent by the bride- 
groom to fetch her, traveled swiftly up the Abbey, and 
a perfect babel of conversation broke out, almost 
drowning the rather Debussy-like wedding march 
which Edith had composed for the occasion. She had 
also written an anthem, “ Thy wife shall be as the 
fruitful vine,” a highly original hymn-tune, and two 
chants for the psalms written for full orchestra with 
percussion and an eight-part choir. She had wanted 
to conduct the whole herself, and expressed her per- 
fect willingness to wear a surplice and her music-doc- 
tor’s hood, and keep on her cap or not, exactly as the 
dean preferred. But the dean preferred that she 
should take no part whatever, beyond contributing the 
whole of the music, which annoyed her very much, and 
several incisive letters passed between them in which 
the topics of conventionalism, Pharisees and cant were 
freely introduced. Edith had to give way, but con- 
soled herself by arranging that the whole of the “ Mar- 
riage Suite ” should be shortly after performed at the 
Queen’s Hall, where no dean or other unenlightened 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


119 

person could prevent her conducting in any costume 
she chose. But temporarily she had been extremely 
upset by this ridiculous bigotry. 

Dodo arrived before the twenty minutes were over, 
and she came up the choir on Jack’s arm, looking quite 
superb and singing Edith’s hymn tune very loud and 
occasionally incorrectly. She had just come opposite 
Edith, who had, in default of conducting, secured a 
singularly prominent position, when she sang a long 
bell-like B flat, and Edith had said “ B natural, Dodo,” 
in a curdling, sibilant whisper. There were of course 
no bridesmaids, but Dodo’s train was carried by pages, 
both of whom she kissed when they arrived at the end 
of their long march up the choir. Mrs. Vivian, who 
on Dodo’s engagement had finally capitulated, was 
next to Edith, and Dodo said “ Vivy, dear ! ” into her 
ear-trumpet, as she passed up the aisle. Miss Gran- 
tham alone among the older friends was absent: she 
had said from the beginning that it was dreadfully 
common of Dodo to marry Jack, as it was a “ lived- 
happily-ever-afterwards ” kind of ending to Dodo’s 
unique experiences. She knew that they would both 
become stout and serene and commonplace, instead of 
being wild and unhappy and interesting, and to mark 
her disapproval, made an appointment with her dentist 
at the hour at which the voice would be breathing over 
Eden in the exceedingly up-to-date music which Edith 
had composed. But so far from her dentist finding 
change and decay, he dismissed her five minutes after 
she had sat down, and seized by a sudden ungovernable 
fit of curiosity she drove straight off to the Abbey to 


120 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


find that Dodo had not arrived, and it seemed possible 
that there was a thrill coming, and everything might 
not end happily. But when it became known that 
Dodo was only late for sentimental reasons, she left 
again in disgust, and ran into Dodo at the west door, 
and said, “ I am disappointed, Dodo.” 

Dodo sang Edith’s psalm with equal fervor, but 
thought it would be egoistic to join in the anthem, since 
it was about herself. But she whispered to Jack, 
“ Jack, dear, it ’s much the most delicious marriage I 
ever had. Hush, you must be grave because dear 
Algie is going to address us. I hope he will give us 
a nice long sermon.” 

The register was signed by almost everybody in the 
world, and there were so many royalties that it looked 
at first as if everybody was going to leave out their 
surnames. But the time of ambassadors and peers 
came at last, and then it looked as if the fashion was 
to discard Christian names. “ In fact,” said Dodo, 
“ I suppose if you were much more royal than anybody 
else, you would lose your Christian name as well, your 
Royal Highness, and simply answer to Hie ! or to any 
loud cry — Oh, are we all ready again ? We ’ve got 
to go first, Jack. Darling, I hope you won’t shy at 
the cinematographs. I hear the porch is full of them, 
like Gatling guns, and to-night you and I will be in 
all the music-halls of London. Where are my ducks 
of pages ? That ’s right : one on each side. Now give 
me your arm, Jack. Here we go! Listen at Edith’s 
wedding march ! I wonder if it ’s safe to play as loud 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


121 


as that in anything so old as the Abbey. I should 
really be rather afraid of its falling down if Algie 
had n’t told me not to be afraid with any amazement.” 

It took the procession a considerable time to get 
down the choir, since Dodo had to kiss her- bouquet 
(not having a hand to spare) to such an extraordinary 
number of people. But in course of time they got out, 
faced the battery of cameras and cinematograph ma- 
chines, and got into their car. Jack effaced himself 
in a corner, but Dodo bowed and smiled with wonder- 
ful assiduity to the crowds. 

“ They have come to see us,” she explained. “ So 
it is essential that we should look pleased to see them. 
I should so like to be the Queen, say on Saturdays only, 
like the train you always want to go by on other days 
in the week. Darling, can’t you smile at them? Or 
put out your tongue, and make a face. They would 
enjoy it hugely.” 

Eventually, as they got further away from the 
Abbey, it became clear to Dodo that the people in the 
street were concerned with their own businesses, and 
not hers, and she leaned back in the carriage. 

“ Oh, Jack,” she said, “ it is you and I at last. 
But I can’t help talking nonsense, dear. I only do it 
because I ’m so happy. I am indeed. And you ? ” 

“ It is morning with me,” he said. 

They left town that afternoon, though Dodo rather 
regretted that they would not see themselves in the 
cinematograph to make sure that she had smiled and 
that Jack’s hair was tidy, and went down to Winston, 
Jack’s country place, where so many years ago Dodo 


122 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


had arrived before as the bride of his cousin. He had 
wondered whether, for her sake, another place would 
not be more suitable as a honeymoon resort, but she 
thought the plan quite ideal. 

“ It will be like the renewal of one’s youth,” she 
said, “and I am going to be so happy there now. 
Jack, we were neither of us happy when you used to 
come to stay there before, and to go back like this will 
wipe out all that is painful in those old memories, and 
keep all that is n’t. Is it much changed ? I should so 
like my old sitting-room again if you have n’t made 
it something else.” 

“ It is exactly as you left it,” said he. “ I could n’t 
alter anything.” 

Dodo slipped her hand into his. 

“ Did you try to, Jack? ” she asked. 

“ Yes. I meant to alter it entirely : I meant to put 
away all that could remind me of you. In fact, I 
went down there on purpose to do it. But when I 
saw it, I could n’t. I sat down there, and — ” 

“ Cried ? ” said Dodo softly, sympathetically. 

“ No, I did n’t cry. I smoked a cigarette and looked 
round in a stupid manner. Then I took out of its 
frame a big photograph of myself that I had given 
you, in order to tear it up. But I put it back in its 
frame again, and put the frame exactly where it was 
before.” 

Dodo gave a little moan. 

“ Oh, Jack, how you must have hated me! ” she said. 

“ I hated what you had done : I hated that you could 
do it. But the other, never. And, Dodo, let us never 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


123 

talk about all those things again, don’t let us even think 
of them. It is finished, and what is real is just be- 
ginning.” 

“ It was real all along,” she said, “ and I knew it was 
real all along — you and me, that is to say — but I 
chose to tell myself that it was n’t. I have been like 
the people who when they hear the scream of some- 
body being murdered say it is only the cat. I have 
been a little brute all my life, and in all probability it 
is past half-time for me already ; in fact it certainly is 
unless I am going to live to be ninety. I ’m not sure 
that I want to, and yet I don’t want to die one bit.” 

“ I should be very much annoyed if you ventured to 
do anything of the sort,” remarked Jack. 

“ Yes, and that is so wonderful of you. You ought 
to have wished me dead a hundred times. What ’s 
the phrase? ‘Yes, she would be better dead.’ Just 
now I want to be better without being dead. I often 
think we all have a sort of half-time in our lives, like 
people in foot-ball matches, when they stop playing 
and eat lemons. The lemons, you understand, are 
rather sour reflections that we are no better than we 
might be, but a great deal worse. And somehow that 
gives one a sort of a fresh start, and we begin playing 
again.” 

They arrived at Winston late in the afternoon ; the 
village had turned out to greet them, flags and arches 
made rainbow of the gray street with its thatched 
houses and air of protected stability, and from the 
church-tower the bells pealed welcome. Dodo, always 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


124 

impressionable and impulsive, was tremendously 
moved, and with eyes brimming over, leaned out of 
one side of the carriage and then the other to acknowl- 
edge these salutations. 

“ Oh, Jack, is n’t it dear of them? ” she said. “ Of 
course I know it ’s all for you really, but you ’ve en- 
dowed me with everything, and so this is mine too. 
Look at that little duck whom that nice-faced woman 
is holding up, waving a flag ! Hark to the bells ! Do 
you remember the poem by Browning, ‘ The air broke 
into a mist with bells ’ ? This is a positive London 
fog of bells; can’t you taste it? Is it the foghorns, in 
that case, that make the fogs? And here we are at 
the lodge and there ’s the lake, and the house ! Ah, 
what a gracious thing a summer evening is. But how 
fragile, Jack, and how soon over ” 

That wistful, underlying tendc *ness in her nature, 
almost melancholy but wholly womanly, rose for the 
moment to the surface. It was not the less sincere 
because it was seldom in evidence. It was as truly 
part of her (and a growing part of her) as her bril- 
liant enjoyment and insouciance. And the expression 
(of it gleamed darkly in her soft brown eyes, as she 
leaned back in the carriage and took his hand. 

“ I will try to make you happy,” she said. 

He bent over her. 

“ Don’t try to do anything, Dodo,” he said. “ Just 
— just be.” 

For a moment a queer little qualm came over her. 
Had she followed her immediate impulse, she would 
have said, “ I don’t know how to love like that. I 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


125 

have to try: I want to learn.” But that would have 
done no good, and in her most introspective moments 
Dodo was always practical. The qualm lasted but a 
moment, as the door was opened, when they drew up. 
But it lasted long enough to cause her to wonder 
whether it would be the past that would be entered 
again instead of the future, entered, too, not by 
another door, but by the same. 

On the doorstep she paused. 

“Lift me over the threshold, Jack,” she said; “it 
is such bad luck for a bride to stumble when she enters 
her home.” 

“ My dear, what nonsense.” 

“ Very likely, but let ’s be nonsensical. Let us pro- 
pitiate all the gods and demons. Lift me, Jack.” 

He yielded to her whim. 

“ That is dear of you,” she said. “ That was a 
perfect entry. Are n’t I silly ? But no Austrian 
would ever dream of letting his wife walk over the 
threshold for the first time. And — and that ’s all 
about Austria,” she added rather hastily. 

Dodo looked swiftly round the old, remembered 
hall. Opposite was the big open fireplace round which 
they so often had sat, preferring its wide-flaring 
homely comfort to the more formal drawing-rooms. 
To-day, no fire burned there, for it was midsummer 
weather; but as in old times a big yellow collie 
sprawled in front of it, grandson perhaps, so short are 
the generations of dogs, to the yellow collies of the 
time when she was here last. He, too, gave good 
omen, for he rose and stretched and waved a banner of 


126 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


a tail, and came stately towards them with a thrusting 
nose of welcome. The same pictures hung on the 
walls; high up there ran round the palisade of stags’ 
heads and Dodo (with a conscious sense of most 
creditable memory) recognized the butler as having 
been her first husband’s valet. .She also remembered 
his name. 

“ Why, Vincent,” she said, holding out her hand, 
“ It is nice to see another old face. And you don’t 
look one day older, any more than his lordship does. 
Tea? Yes, let us have tea at once, Jack. I am 
so hungry: happiness is frightfully exhausting, and I 
don’t mind how exhausted I am.” 

Suddenly Dodo caught sight of the portrait of her- 
self which had been painted when this house was for 
the first time her home. 

“ Oh, Jack, look at that little brute smiling there! ” 
she said. “ I was rather pretty, though, but I don’t 
think I like myself at all. Dear me, I hope I’m not 
just the same now, with all the prettiness and youth 
removed. I don’t think I am quite, and oh, Jack, 
there’s poor dear old Chesterford. Ah, that hurts 
me ; it gives me a bitter little heart-ache. Would you 
mind, Jack, if — ” 

Jack felt horribly annoyed with himself in not hav- 
ing seen to this. 

“ My dear,” he said, “ it was awfully thoughtless of 
me. Of course, it shall go. It was stupid, but, Dodo, 
I was so happy all this last month, that I have thought 
of nothing except myself.” 

Dodo turned away from the picture to him. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


127 

“ And all the time I thought you were thinking about 
me ! ” she said. “ Jack, what a deceiver ! ” 

He shook his head. 

“ No: it is that you don’t understand. You are 
me.” 

“ Am I? I should be a much nicer fellow if I was. 
Jack, don’t have that picture moved. It only hurt for 
a moment : it was a ghost that startled me merely be- 
cause I did not expect it. It is a dear ghost : it is not 
jealous, it will not spoil things or come between us. 
It — it wants us to be happy, for he told me, you know, 
it was the last thing he said — that I was to marry 
you. It is a long time ago, oh, how long ago, though 
I say it to my shame. Besides, if you are to pull down 
or put away all that reminds me of that dreadful young 
woman ” — Dodo put out her tongue and made a face 
at her own picture — “ you will have to pull down the 
house and drink up the lake and cut down the trees. 
Ah, how lovely the garden looks! I was never here 
in the summer before: we only came for the shooting 
and hunting and the garden invariably consisted of 
rows of blackened salvias and decaying dahlias. But 
it is summer now, Jack.” 

There was no mistaking the figurative sense in 
which she meant him to understand the word “ sum- 
mer.” It had been winter, winter of discontent — so 
the glance she gave him inevitably implied — when she 
was here before, and she rejoiced in and admired this 
excellent glory of summer-time. And yet but a mo- 
ment before the picture in the hall had “ hurt ” her, 
until she remembered that even on his death-bed her 


128 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


first husband had bidden her marry the man who had 
brought her back here to-day. She had neglected to 
do as she was told for about a quarter of a century, 
and had married somebody else instead, and yet this 
amazing variety of topics that concerned her heart, 
any one of which, you would have expected, was of 
sufficient import to fill her mind to the exclusion of all 
else, but bowled across it, as the shadows of clouds 
bowl across the fields on a day of spring winds, leav- 
ing the untarnished sunshine after their passage. It 
was not because she was heartless that she touched on 
this series of somewhat tremendous topics: it was 
rather that her vitality instantly reasserted itself: it 
was undeterred, impervious to discouraging or disturb- 
ing reflections. 

Dodo ate what may be termed a good tea, and 
smoked several cigarettes. Then noticing that a small 
golf links had been laid out in the fields below the 
garden, she rushed indoors to change her dress, and 
play a game with her husband. 

“ It won’t be much fun for you, darling,” she said, 
“ because my golf is a species of landscape gardening, 
and I dig immense hollows with my club and alter the 
lie of the country generally. Also I sometimes cheat, 
if nobody is looking, so admire the beauties of nature 
if you hear me say that I have a bad lie, because if 
you looked you would see me pushing the ball into a 
pleasanter place, and that would give you a low opinion 
of me. But a little exercise would be so good for us 
both after being married: the Abbey was terribly 
stuffy.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


129 

The fifth hole brought them near the memorial 
chapel in the Park, where her first husband was buried. 

“ Darling, that puts you five up,” she said, 44 and 
would you mind waiting here a minute, while I go in 
alone ? I don’t want even you with me : I want to go 
alone and kneel for a minute by his grave, and say my 
prayers, and tell him I have come back again with you. 
Will you wait for a minute, Jack? I shan’t be long.” 

Dodo was n’t long : she said her prayers with re- 
markable celerity, and came out again wiping her eyes. 

44 Oh, Jack,” she said, 44 what a beautiful monu- 
ment : it was n’t finished, you know, when I went away 
and I had n’t seen it. And it ’s so touching to have 
just those three words, 4 Lead, kindly Light ’ : the dear 
old boy was so fond of that hymn. It ’s all so lovely 
and peaceful, and if ever there was a saint in the 
nineteenth century, it was he. Somehow I felt as if 
he knew about us and approved, and I remember we 
had 4 Lead, kindly Light ’ on the very last Sunday even- 
ing of all. I am so glad I went in.” 

Dodo gave a little sigh. 

44 Where are we ? ” she said. 44 Am I one hole up 
or two ? Two, is n’t it ? Do let it be two. And what 
a lovely piece of marble. It looks like the most won- 
derful cold cream turned to stone. It must be Car- 
rara. Oh, Jack, what a beautiful drive! It went 
much faster than the legal limit.” 

The flames of the summer-sunset were beginning to 
fade in the sky when they got back to the house, and it 
was near dinner-time. Dodo’s spirits and appetite 


I 3 0 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

were both of the most excellent order, and all the 
memories that this house brought back to her, so far 
from causing any aching resuscitation of past years, 
were, owing to the incomparable alchemy of her mind, 
but transformed into a soft and suitable background 
for the present. Afterwards, they sat on the terrace 
in the warm dusk. 

“ I must telegraph to Nadine to-morrow,” she 
said, “ and tell her how happy I am. Jack, some- 
times Nadine seems to me exactly what I should ex- 
pect a very attractive aunt to be. Do you know what 
I mean? I feel she could have warned me of all the 
mistakes I have made in my life, before they hap- 
pened, if she had been born. And she approves of 
you and me; isn’t it lucky? I wonder why I feel 
so young on the very day on which I should most 
naturally be thinking what a lot of life has passed. 
Jack, I don’t want any more events. Some people 
reckon life by events, and that is so unreasonable. 
Events are thrust upon you ; what counts is what you 
feel.” 

He moved his chair a little nearer to hers. 

“ I am satisfied with what I feel,” he said. “ And 
though I have felt it for very many years, it has never 
lost its freshness. I have always wanted, and now 
I have got.” 

Suddenly Dodo’s mood changed. 

“ Oh, you take a great risk,” she said. “ Who is 
to assure you that I shan’t disappoint you, disappoint 
you horribly? I can’t assure you of that, Jack. It 
is easy to understand other people, but the silly 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 131 

proverb that tells you to know yourself, makes a far 
more difficult demand. If I disappoint you, what are 
we to do ? ” 

“ You can’t disappoint me if you are yourself,” he 
said. 

“ You say that! To me, too, who have outraged 
every sort of decency with regard to you?” 

He was silent a moment. 

“ Yes, I say that to you,” he said. 

Dodo gave a little bubbling laugh. 

“ You are not very polite,” she said. “ I say that 
I have outraged every sort of decency and you don’t 
even contradict me.” 

“ No. What you say is — is perfectly true. But 
the comment of you and me sitting here on our bridal 
night is sufficient, is it not? Dodo, there is no use in 
your calling yourself names. Leave it all alone : we are 
here, you and I. And it is getting late, my darling.” 

The same night Lady Ayr was giving one of her 
awful dinner-parties. Her family, John, Esther and 
Seymour were always bidden to them, and went in to 
dinner in exactly their proper places as sons and 
daughters of a marquis. Before now it had happened 
that Seymour had to take Esther in to dinner, and it 
was so to-night. But in the general way they saw 
so little of each other, that they did not very much 
object. They usually quarreled before long, but 
made their differences up again by their unanimity of 
opinion about their mother. That had already hap^ 
pened this evening. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


132 

“ Mother is bursting with curiosity about Aunt 
Dodo’s wedding,” said Esther. “ She was n’t asked. 
I told her it was a very pretty wedding.” 

“ I went,” said Seymour, “ and I am going to writq 
an account of it for The Lady. If you will tell 
me how you were dressed, I will put it in, that is sup- 
posing you were decently dressed. Mother asked me 
about it, too, and I think I said the bridesmaids 
looked lovely.” 

“ But there were n’t any,” said Esther. 

“Of course there were n’t, but it enraged her. By 
the way, there is some awful stained glass put up in 
the staircase since I was here last. A ruby crown 
has apparently had twins, one of which is a sapphire 
crown and the other a diamond crown. I should n’t 
mind that sort of thing happening, if it was n’t so 
badly done. I shall try to break it by accident after 
dinner. Did you design it? My dear, I forgot: we 
had finished quarreling. Let us talk about some- 
thing else. Nadine came to see me the other day, and 
if you will not tell anybody, I think it quite likely 
that I shall marry her. She likes jade. And she 
looks quite pretty to-night, does n’t she ? ” 

Esther had already alluded to Nadine, who was sit- 
ting opposite, as the dream of dreams, and further 
appreciation was unnecessary. 

“You don’t happen to have asked her yet?” she 
said, with marked neutrality. 

“ No, one does n’t ask that sort of thing until one 
knows the answer,” said he. “ That is, unless you 
are one of the ridiculous people who ask for infor- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


133 

mation. I hate the information I get by asking, 
unless I know it already.” 

“ And then you don’t get it.” 

“ No. Esther, that is a charming emerald you are 
wearing but it is atrociously set. If you will send it 
round to-morrow, I will draw a decent setting for it. 
Do look at Mother. She has got the family lace on, 
which is made of string. I think it is Saxon. Oh, 
of course the coronets are about her. How foolish 
of me not to have guessed.” 

“ It is more foolish of you to think that Nadine 
would look at you,” said Esther. 

“ I did n’t ask her to look at me, and I shan’t ask 
her to look at me. I shall recommend her not to look 
at me. But I shall marry her or Antoinette. I don’t 
see why you are so stuffy about it. Or perhaps you 
would prefer Antoinette for a sister-in-law.” 

“ If she is to be your wife, dear, I think I should,” 
said Esther. 

Seymour laid his hand on hers. His smelt vaguely 
of wall-flowers. 

“ How disagreeable you are,” he said. “ I don’t 
think I shall say anything about your dress in The 
Lady. I shall simply say that Lady Esther Sturgis 
was there looking very plain and tired. I shall de- 
scribe my own dress instead. I had an emerald pin, 
properly set, instead of its being set like that sort of 
cheese cake you are wearing. No, it ’s not exactly a 
cheese cake: it is as if you had spilt some creme-de- 
menthe and put a little palisade of broken glass round 
it to prevent it spreading. What a disgusting dinner 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


134 

we are having, are n’t we ? I never know what to do 
before I dine with Mama, whether to eat so much 
lunch that I don’t want any dinner, or to eat none at 
all so that I can manage to swallow this sort of 
garbage. To-night I am rather hungry: won’t you 
come away early with me and have some supper at 
home? Perhaps Nadine will come too.” 

“ If Nadine will come, I will,” said Esther. “ I 
suppose we can chaperone each other.” 

“ Certainly, if it amuses you. Shall we ask any- 
body else? I see hardly anybody here whom I know 
by sight. I think they must all be earls and count- 
esses. It ’s funny how few of one’s own class are 
worth speaking to. Look at Mama ! I know I 
keep telling you to look at Mama, but she is so re- 
markable. She said ‘sir’ just now to the man next 
her. He must be a Saxon king. I wish she was 
responsible for the wine instead of father : teetotalers 
usually give one excellent wine, because they don’t 
imagine they know anything about it, and tell the 
wine merchants just to send round some champagne 
and hock. So of course they send the most ex- 
pensive.” 

“ I think we ought to talk to our neighbors,” said 
Esther. “ Mama is making faces.” 

“ That is because she has eaten some of this entree , 
I expect. I make no face because I have n’t. But I 
can’t talk to my neighbor. I tried, but she is un- 
speakable-to. I wish my nose would bleed, because 
then I should go away.” 

One of the frequent pauses that occurred at Lady 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 135 

Ayr’s dinners was taking place at the moment, and 
Seymour’s rather shrill voice was widely audible. A 
buzz of vacant conversation succeeded, and he con- 
tinued. 

“ That was heard,” he said, “ and really I did n’t 
mean it to be heard. I am sorry. I shall make my- 
self agreeable. But tell Nadine we shall go away 
soon after dinner. If you will be ready, I shall not 
go up into the drawing-room at all.” 

Seymour turned brightly to the woman seated on 
his right. 

“ Have you been to ‘ The Follies’ ? ” he asked. “ I 
hope you haven’t, because then we can’t talk about 
them, since I have n’t either. There are enough 
follies going about, without going to them.” 

“ How amusin’ you are,” said his neighbor. 

Seymour felt exasperated. 

“I know I am,” he said. “ Do be amusing too; 
then we shall be delighted with each other.” 

“But I don’t know who you are,” said his neigh- 
bor. 

“ Well, that is the case with me,” said he. “ But 
my mother — ” 

His neighbor’s face instantly changed from a chilly 
neutrality to a welcoming warmth. 

“ Oh, are you Lord Seymour ? ” she asked. 

“ I should find it very uncomfortable to be any- 
body else,” said he. “I should not know what to 
do.” 

“ Then do tell me, because of course you know all 
about these things : Are we all going to wear slabs 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


136 

of jade next year? And did you see me at Princess 
Waldenech’s wedding this morning ? And who mani- 
cures you? I hear you have got a marvelous per- 
son.” Seymour really wished to atone for the 
unfortunate remark that had broken the silence and 
exerted himself. 

“ But of course,” he said. “ It is Antoinette. She 
cooks for me and calls me: she dusts my rooms, and 
brushes my boots. She stirs the soup with one hand 
and manicures me with the other. Fancy not know- 
ing Antoinette! She is fifty-two: by the time you 
are fifty-two you ought to be known anywhere. If 
she marries I shall die: if I marry, she will still live 
I hope. Now do tell me: do you recommend me to 
marry ? ” 

“ Does n’t it depend upon whom you marry ? ” 

“Not much, do you think? But perhaps you are 
married, and so know. Are you married? And 
would you mind telling me who you are, as I have 
told you?” 

“You never told me: I guessed. Guess who I 
am.” 

Seymour looked at her attentively. She was a 
woman of about fifty, with a shrewd face, like a 
handsome monkey, and his millinerish eyes saw that 
she was dressed without the slightest regard to ex- 
pense. 

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” he said. “But 
please don’t tell me, if you have any private reason 
for not wishing it to be known. I can readily under- 
stand you would not like people to be able to say that 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


137 

you were seen dining with Mama. Of course you 
are not English.” 

“ Why do you think that ? ” 

“ Because you talk it so well. English people al- 
ways talk it abominably. But — ” 

He looked at her again, and a vague resemblance 
both in speech and in the shape of her head struck 
him. 

“ I will guess,” he said, “ you are a relation of 
Nadine’s.” 

“ Quite right : go on.” 

Seymour was suddenly agitated and upset a glass 
of champagne that had just been filled. He took not 
the slightest notice of this. 

“ Is it too much to hope that you are the aunt who 
■ — who had so many snuff-boxes ? ” he asked. “ I 
mean the one to whom the Emperor gave all those 
lovely snuff-boxes ? Or is it too good to be true ? ” 

“ Just good enough,” she said. 

“ How wildly exciting ! Will you come back to 
my flat as soon as we can escape from this purgatory 
and Antoinette shall manicure you. Do tell me about 
the snuff-boxes ; I am sure they were beauties, or you 
would not — I mean the Emperor would not have 
given you them.” 

“Of course not. But I am afraid I can’t come to 
your flat to-night, as I am going to a dance. Ask me 
another day. I hear you have got some lovely jade 
and are going to make it the fashion. Then I sup- 
pose you will sell it.” 

Seymour determined to insure his jade before 


138 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Countess Eleanor entered his rooms, for fear of its 
subsequently appearing that the Austrian Emperor 
had followed up his present of snuff-boxes with a 
present of jade. But he let no suspicion mar the 
cordiality of his tone. 

“ Yes, that’s the idea,” he said. “You see no 
younger son can possibly live in the way he has been 
brought up unless he has done something honest and 
commercial like that, or cheats at bridge. But that is 
so difficult I am told. You have to learn bridge 
first, and then go to a conjurer, during which time 
you probably forget bridge again. But otherwise you 
can’t live at all unless you marry and the only thing 
left to do is to take to drink and die.” 

“ My brother took to it and lives,” said she. 

“ I know, but you are a very remarkable family.” 

A footman had wiped up the greater part of the 
champagne Seymour had spilt and now stood waiting 
till he could speak to him. 

“ Her ladyship told me to tell you that you seemed 
to have had enough champagne, my lord,” he said. 

Seymour paused for a moment, and his face turned 
white with indignation. 

“Tell her ladyship she is quite right,” he said, 
“and that the first sip I took of it was more than 
enough.” 

“ Very good, my lord.” 

“And tell her that the fish was stale,” said Sey- 
mour shrilly. 

“ Yes, my lord.” 

“ And tell her — ” began Seymour again. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


139 


Countess Eleanor interrupted him. 

“ You have sent enough pleasant messages for one 
time/’ she said. “ You can talk to your mother 
afterwards : at present talk to me. Did you go to the 
wedding this morning? ” 

“ Yes.” 

Seymour rather frequently allowed himself to be 
ruffled, but he always calmed down again quickly. 
“ It is so like Mama to send a servant in the middle 
of dinner to say I am drunk,” he said, “ but she will 
be sorry now. Look, she is receiving my message, 
and is turning purple. That is satisfactory. She 
looks unusually plain when she is purple. Yes: I am 
describing the wedding for a lady’s paper. I shall 
get four guineas for it.” 

“ You do not look as if that would do you much 
good.” 

“If you take four guineas often enough they — 
they purify the blood,” said he, “ though certainly the 
dose is homeopathic. It is called the gold cure. 
About the wedding. I thought it was very vulgar. 
And it was frightfully bourgeois in spirit. It is very 
early Victorian to marry a man who has waited for 
you since about 1820.” 

“ But they will be very happy.” 

“ So are the bourgeoisie who change hats. At 
least I should have to be frightfully happy to think 
of putting on anybody else’s hat. I recommend you 
not to eat that savory unless you have a bad cold that 
prevents your tasting anything. Shall I send another 
message to Mama about it ? ” 


140 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ Ah, my dear young man,” said Countess Eleanor, 
“ we are all common when we fall in love. You will 
find yourself being common too, some day. And the 
people who are least bourgeois become the most com- 
mon of all. Nadine, for instance: there is no one 
less bourgeoise than Nadine, but if she ever falls in 
love she will be so common that she will be perfectly 
sublime. She will be the embodiment of humanity. 
But she is not in love with that great boy next her, 
who is so clearly in love with her. Dear me, what 
beautiful Sevres dessert plates. I once collected 
Sevres as well as snuff-boxes.” 

“Did you — did you get together a fine collec- 
tion ? ” asked Seymour. 

“ Pretty well. It is easier to get snuff-boxes. My 
brother has some that used to be mine. — Ah, they are 
all getting up. Let me come to see your jade some 
other day.” 

Nadine and Esther escaped very soon after dinner 
from this dreadful party, and went to Seymour’s flat 
where he had preceded them and was busy cooking 
with Antoinette in the kitchen when they arrived. 
He opened the door for them himself with his shirt 
sleeves rolled up above his elbows, showing an ex- 
tremely white and delicate skin. Round one wrist 
he wore a gold bangle. 

“ I ’ve left the kitchen door open,” he said, ct so that 
the whole flat shall smell as strong as possible of 
cooking. There is nothing so delicious when you are 
hungry. We will open the windows afterwards. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


141 

You and Esther must amuse yourselves for ten min- 
utes, and then supper will be ready.” 

“ Oh, may I come and cook too, Seymour ? ” asked 
Nadine. 

“ Certainly not. Antoinette is the only woman in 
the world who knows how to cook. You would make 
everything messy. Go and rock the cradle or rule the 
world, or whatever you consider to be a woman’s 
sphere, until we are ready.” 

Seymour disappeared again into the kitchen from 
which came rich cracklings and odors of frying, and 
Nadine turned to Esther with a sigh. 

“ My dear, I have got remorse and world yearn- 
ings to-night,” she said. “ I attribute it to your 
mother’s awful party. But I daresay we shall all be 
better soon. You know, if I had asked Hugh to let 
me come and cook, he would have given me a golden 
spoon to stir with, and eaten till he burst because I 
cooked it. And I don’t care! He was so dear and 
so utterly impossible this evening. I told him I 
was n’t going to the dance at the Embassy, and he said > 
he should go in case I changed my mind. And if it 
had been Hugh cooking in there, I should have gone 
and cooked too, even if he had n’t wanted me to. 
It ’s no use, Esther : I can’t marry Hugh. There ’s 
the end of it. Up till to-night I have always won- 
dered if I could. Now I know I can’t. I think I 
shan’t see so much of him. I shall miss him, don’t 
think I shan’t miss him, but I want to be fair to him. 
As it is now, whenever I am nice to him, which I al- 
ways am, he thinks it means that I am beginning to 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


142 

love him. Whereas it doesn’t mean anything what- 
ever. I wish people hadn’t got into the habit of 
marrying each other, but bought their babies at a shop 
instead. And kissing is so disgusting. The only 
person I ever like kissing is Mama, because her skin 
is so delicious and smells very faintly of raspberries. 
Hugh smells of cigarettes and soap — ” 

“ Darling Nadine, you have n’t been kissing Hugh, 
have you ? ” asked Esther. 

“ Yes, I kissed him this evening, when he was put- 
ting my cloak on, but there were ninety-five footmen 
there so it was n’t compromising : we were heavily 
chaperoned. And I would just as soon have kissed 
any of the other ninety-five. But he wanted me to, 
and so I did, and then suddenly I saw how unfair it 
was for me. It did n’t mean anything : I kissed him 
just as I kiss my dog, because he is such a duck. 
Also because he wanted me to, which Tobias never 
does: he always cleans his face on the rug after I 
have kissed him, and sneezes.” 

" Did he ask you to?” said Esther, — “ not Toby, 
Hugh!” 

“ No, but I can see by a man’s face when he wants. 
I saw one of the footmen wanted, too, and perhaps I 
ought to have kissed him as well, to show Hugh it did 
not mean anything.” 

Nadine sat down and spread her hands wide with 
a surprisingly dramatic gesture of innocence and de- 
spair. 

“ It is n’t my fault,” she said ; “ it ’s me. C’est 
moi: son ’ io! I would translate it into all the lan- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


143 

guages of the world, like the Bible, if that would 
make Hugh understand. People can’t be different 
from what they are. It ’s a grand mistake to suppose 
otherwise. They can act and talk in accordance with 
what they are, or they can act and talk otherwise, but 
they, the personalities, are unchangeable except by 
miracles. I could act contrary to my own self and 
marry Hugh, but it would be no particle of good. I 
want him to understand that I can’t love him, and I 
am too fond of him to marry him without. I wish 
to heaven he would marry somebody else.” 

“ He won’t do that,” said Esther. 

“ I am afraid not. I think it is rather selfish. It 
is putting it all on me. I shall have to marry some- 
body else, I suppose, and that will be very unselfish of 
me, because I don’t want to marry. Of course one 
has to : I don’t want to grow old, but I shall have to 
grow old. They are both laws of nature, and per- 
haps neither the one nor the other is so disagreeable 
really.” 

Esther gave her long, appreciative sigh. 

“ It would be too wonderful of you to marry some- 
body else, in order to make it clear to Hugh that you 
could n’t marry him,” she said. “ It would be the 
most illustrious thing to do and it shows that really 
you are devoted to Hugh. But you really think that 
people don’t change, Nadine?” 

“ Not unless a moral earthquake happens and earth- 
quakes are not to be expected. Only an upheaval of 
that kind makes any difference in the essential things. 
Their tastes change, as their noses and hair change, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


144 

but the thing that sits behind like some beastly idol in 
a temple never moves and looks on at all that changes 
round it with the same wooden eyes. Oh, dear, I am 
so tired of myself, and I can’t get out of sight of my- 
self.” 

Nadine looked at herself in a Louis Seize mirror 
that hung above the fireplace and pointed a contem- 
plative finger at the reflection of her pale loveliness. 

“ I wish I was anything in the world except that 
thing,” she said. “ I am genuine when I say that, but 
having said that there is nothing else about me but 
what is intolerable. But I am aware that I don’t 
really care about anybody in the world. The only 
thing that can be said for me is that I detest myself. 
I wish I was like you, Esther, because you care for 
me : I wish I was like Aunt Eleanor because she cares 
for stealing. I wish I was like Daddy because he 
cares for old brandy. You are all better off than I. 
I envy anybody and everybody who cares for any- 
body with her heart. No doubt having a heart is 
often a very great nuisance, and often leads, you to 
make a dreadful fool of yourself, but it gets tedious 
to be wise and cool all the time like me.” 

Seymour entered at this moment carrying a little 
silver censer with incense in it. 

“ The smell of food is sufficiently strong,” he said. 
“ And supper is ready. Also the smell of incense 
reminds one of stepping out of the blazing sunlight 
into St. Mark’s at Venice. Nadine, you look too ex- 
quisite, but depressed. Has not the effect of Mama 
worn off yet ? ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


145 


“ Oh, it ’s not your mother, it ’s me,” said she. 

“ You think about yourself too much,” observed 
Seymour. “ I know the temptation so well, and 
generally yield to it. It is a great mistake: one oc- 
casionally has doubts whether one is the nicest per- 
son in the world and. whether it is worth while doing 
anything, even collecting jade. But such doubts 
never last long with me.” 

“ Don’t you ever wish you had a heart, Seymour ? ” 
she asked. “ You and I have neither of us got 
hearts.” 

“ I know, and I am so exceedingly comfortable 
without one, that I should.be sorry to get one. If you 
have a heart, sooner or later you get into a state of 
drivel about somebody, who probably does n’t drivel 
about you. That must be so mortifying. Even if 
two people drivel mutually they are deplorable objects, 
but a solitary driveler is like a lonely cat on the tiles, 
and is a positive nuisance. Poor Hugh! Nadine, 
you suit my wall-paper quite exquisitely. Also it 
suits you. Don’t let any of us go to bed to-night, but 
see the morning come. The early morning is the 
color of a wood-pigeon’s breast, and looks frightfully 
tired, as if it had sat up all night too. Most peo- 
ple look perfectly hideous at that moment, but I 
really don’t believe you would. Do sit up and let me 
see.” 

“ I look the color of an oyster at dawn,” said 
Esther, “ it is just as if I had gone bad.” 

Her brother looked at her thoughtfully. 

“Yes, my dear, I can imagine your looking quite 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


146 

ghastly,” he said. “ You had better go away before 
dawn. It might make me seriously unwell.” 

“ I shall. I shall go to the dance at the Embassy, 
I think. Madame Tavita is so hideous that she makes 
me feel good-looking for a week.” 

“ You always behave as if you were pretty, which 
matters far more than being pretty,” said Seymour. 
“ It matters very little what people look like, if they 
only behave as if they were Venuses, just as it does 
not matter how tall you are if you consistently look 
at a point rather above the head of the person you 
are talking to.” 

Nadine was recovering a little under the influence 
of food. 

“ That is quite true,” she said. “ And if you want 
to look really rich, you must be shabby, or not wash 
your face. Seymour, let us try and write a little book 
together, ‘Fifty ways of appearing enviable.’ You 
should eat a great deal in order to make it appear 
you have a good digestion, although you may be 
quite sick afterwards, and refuse a great many in- 
vitations to show what a wild social success you are, 
even though you dine all by yourself at home. My 
dear, what delicious food; did you cook it, or An- 
toinette ? ” 

“ Both. We each threw in what we thought would 
be good, and stirred it together. I am sorry for 
people who are not greedy. I am told that when you 
are old, food and saving money are the only pursuits 
that don’t pall. At present food and spending money 
are particularly attractive, and a piquancy is added if 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


147 

you have n’t got any money. And now we all feel 
better.” 

Seymour had a piece of needlework which he often 
produced when he was staying with friends, in order 
to irritate them. He seldom worked at it when at 
home, but to-night he got it out, in order to irritate 
his sister into going to the ball without delay, for 
Esther was always exasperated to a point almost be- 
yond her control by the sight of her brother with his 
thimble and needle. So before long she took her de- 
parture, leaving Nadine to follow (which was Sey- 
mour’s design), and he put the needlework back into 
its embroidered bag again. 

“ I am afraid my methods are a little obvious,” he 
said, “ but poor Esther sees nothing but the most ob- 
vious hints. You have to say things very loud and 
clear to her, like the man in * Alice in Wonderland.’ ” 
“Who was that?” asked Nadine absently. “And 
what did you want Esther to do ? ” 

“ To go away, of course. I wanted to talk to you, 
Nadine. I have never known you look so beautiful 
as to-night. You look troubled too. Troubles make 
people feel plain but look beautiful.” 

Nadine shifted her position, so that she faced him. 
“ Yes, do talk to me,” she said. “ See if you can 
distract me a little from myself. My mind hurts me, 
Seymour. I wish I had a hard bright mind as some 
people have. Their minds are like ... I don’t 
know what they are like: I can’t trouble to think to- 
night. How stupid are all the jinkings and monkey- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


148 

tricks we go through! I have worn an inane smile 
all day, and when I tried to read my Plato, it merely 
bored me. Nothing seems worth while. And don’t 
be commonplace, and say that it is liver. It is noth- 
ing of the sort. Would you be surprised if I burst 
into tears ? ” 

“ You have been thinking of the old ’un,” remarked 
Seymour. 

“ Whom do you mean ? ” 

“ Hugh, of course. Do you know you are rather 
like a boy watching the struggle of a butterfly he has 
impaled? You are sorry for it, but you don’t let it 

if 

g°- 

“ He impaled himself,” said Nadine. 

“ Well, you gave him the pin. But as you don’t 
mean to marry him, make that quite clear to him.” 

“ But how?” 

•* Marry me,” said Seymour. 


CHAPTER VI 


E DITH ARBUTHNOT had conceived the idea, an 
unhappy one as regards her family and neigh- 
bors, that every one who aspired to the name of 
Musician (it is not too much to assert that she did) 
should be able to play every instrument in the band. 
Just now she was learning the French horn and 
double-bass simultaneously. She kept her mind un- 
distracted by the hideous noises she produced, and 
expected others to do so. Thus unless she was prac- 
tising some instrument that required the exclusive use 
of the mouth, she would talk (and did so) while she 
learned. 

Just now she was seated on the terrace wall at 
Winston, which was of a convenient height for play- 
ing the double-bass, which rested on the terrace 
below, and conversing at the top of her voice to Dodo 
who sat a yard or two away. These stentorian tones 
of course were necessary in order that she should 
be heard above the vibrating roar of the ill-played 
strings. She could not at present get much tone out 
of them; but for volume, it was as if all the bumble- 
bees in the world were swarming in all the threshing- 
machines in the world, which were threshing every- 
thing else in the world. 

“ I used to think you were heartless, Dodo,” she 
149 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


150 

shouted; “ but compared to Nadine you are a sickly 
sentimentalist.” 

When Dodo did not feel equal to shouting back, she 
spoke in dumb show. Now she concisely indicated 
“ Rot ” on her fingers. 

“ It is n’t Rot,” shouted Edith ; “ ah, what a won- 
derful thing a double-bass is : I shall write a Suite for 
the double-bass unaccompanied — I really mean it. 
If you seemed to me without a heart, Nadine would 
seem to have an organ which is all that a heart is not, 
very highly developed. Probably she inherited a 
tendency from you, and has developed and cultivated 
it. What do you say ? ” 

“ I said, do stop that appalling noise, darling,” 
screamed Dodo. “ I shall burst a blood-vessel if I 
try to talk against it.” 

“ Very well: I must just play two or three scales,” 
said Edith. 

The hoarse clamor grew more and more vibrant 
and Dodo stopped her ears. Eventually the bow, as 
Edith brought it down upon the first note of a new 
scale, flew from her hands, and describing a parabola 
in the air fell into a clump of sweet-peas in the 
flower-bed below the terrace. 

“ I must learn not to do that,” she said. “ It hap- 
pened yesterday and I shan’t consider myself profi- 
cient until I am safe not to hit the conductor in the 
face. About Nadine: She is going to perpetrate the 
most horrible cruelty, marrying that dreadful young 
man, while Hugh is just dying for her. Hugh re- 
minds me of what Jack was like, Dodo.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 151 

“Oh, do you think so?” said Dodo. “Except 
that Jack was once twenty-five, which is what Hugh 
is now, I don’t see the smallest resemblance. Jack 
was so good-looking, and Hugh only looks good, and 
though Hugh is a darling, he is just a little slow and 
heavy, which Jack never was. You will be able to 
compare them, by the way, because Hugh is coming 
here this afternoon. I asked him not to, but he is 
coming just the same. I told him Nadine and Sey- 
mour were both here.” 

“ Perhaps he means to kill Seymour,” said Edith 
thoughtfully. “ It certainly would be the obvious 
thing to do — ” 

“ Hughie would always do the obvious thing,” said 
Dodo. 

“ I will finish my sentence,” said Edith. “ It cer- 
tainly would be the obvious thing to do, provided that 
the public executioner would not hang him, and that 
Nadine would marry him. But things would prob- 
ably go the other way about, which would not be so 
satisfactory for Hugh. Really the young generation 
is very bloodless: it talks more than we did, but it 
does absolutely nothing.” 

“We used to talk a good deal,” remarked Dodo, 
“and we are not silent yet. At least you and I are 
not. Edith, has it ever struck you that you and I are 
middle-aged? Or is middle-age, do you think, not a 
matter of years, but of inclination? I think it must 
be, for it is simply foolish to say that I am forty-five, 
though it would be simply untrue to say that I was 
anything else. That is by the way; we will talk of 


152 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

ourselves soon. Where had I got to ? Oh, yes, Hugh 
is coming down this afternoon though I implored him 
not to. Nadine says I was wrong. She wants me 
to be very nice to him, as she has been so horrid. 
They have not seen each other for a whole week, 
ever since her engagement was announced. I am 
sure Nadine misses him; she will be miserable if Hugh 
deserts her.” 

Edith plucked impatiently at the strings of the 
double-bass, and aroused the bumblebees again. 

“ That ’s what I mean by bloodless,” she said. 
“ They are all suffering from anemia together. Their 
blood has turned to a not very high quality of gray 
matter in the brain. Nadine wants you to be kind 
to Hugh, because she has been so horrid! Dodo, 
don’t you see how fishlike that is? And he, since he 
can’t marry her, takes the post of valet-de-chambre, 
and looks on while Seymour gives her little butterfly 
kisses and small fragments of jade. I saw him kiss 
her yesterday, Dodo. It made me feel quite faint 
and weak, and I had to hurry into the dining-room 
and take half a glass of port. It was the most de- 
bilitated thing I ever saw. Berts is nearly as bad, 
and though he is nine feet high and plays cricket for 
his county, he is somehow ladylike. I can’t think 
where he got it from: certainly not from me. And 
as for Hugh, I suppose he calls it faithfulness to h. 
about after Nadine, but I call it anemia. I am sur- 
prised at Hugh; I should have thought he was suffi- 
ciently stupid to have more blood in him. He ought 
to box Nadine’s ears, kick Seymour and instantly 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


153 

marry somebody else, and have dozens of great red- 
faced, white-toothed children. Bah ! ” 

Dodo had subsided into hopeless giggles over this 
remarkable tirade against the anemic generation and 
Edith plucked at her double-bass again as she con- 
cluded with this exclamation of scorn. 

“ And I can’t think how you allow Nadine to 
marry that — that jade,” said Edith. 

Dodo became momentarily serious. 

“ If you were Nadine’s mother,” she said, “ you 
would be delighted at her marrying anybody. She is 
the sort of girl who does n’t want to marry, and after- 
wards wishes she had. I am not like that : I was con- 
tinually marrying somebody and then wishing I 
had n’t. But Nadine does n’t make mistakes. She 
may do things that appear very odd, but they are not 
mistakes, she has thought it out very carefully first. 
You see, quite a quantity of eligible youths and several 
remarkably ineligible ones have wanted to marry her, 
and she has never felt any — dear me, what is it a 
man with a small income always feels when a post 
with a large income is offered him — oh, yes, a call: 
Nadine has never felt any call to marry any of them. 
There are many girls like that in whom the physical 
makes very little appeal. But what does appeal to 
Nadine very strongly is the mental, and Seymour 
lie ever many times you call him a jade, is as clever 
as he can be. In him, also, I should say, the physical 
side is extremely undeveloped, and so I think that 
he and Nadine may be very happy. Now Hugh is not 
clever at all; he has practically no intellect and that 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


154 

to Nadine is an insuperable defect. Now don’t call 
her prig or blue stocking. She is neither the one nor 
the other. But she has a mind. So have you. So 
for that matter have I, and it has led me to do weird 
things.” 

Edith thrummed her double-bass again. 

“ Dodo, I can’t tell you how I disapprove of you,” 
she said, “ and how I love you. You are almost 
entirely selfish, and yet you have charm. Most utterly 
selfish people lose their charm when they are about 
thirty. I made sure you would. But I was quite 
wrong. Now I am utterly unselfish: I live entirely 
for my husband and my art. I live for him by sel- 
dom going near him, since he is much happier alone. 
But then I never had any charm at all. Now you have 
always lived, and do still, completely for your own 
pleasure — ” 

Dodo clapped her hands violently in Edith’s face 
for it required drastic measures to succeed in inter- 
rupting her. 

“ Ah, that is an astonishingly foolish thing for you 
to say,” she said. “ If I lived for my pleasure, do 
you know what I should do? I should have a hot 
bath, go to bed and have dinner there. I should then 
go to sleep and when I woke up I should go for a 
ride, have another hot bath and another dinner and 
go to sleep again. There is nothing so pleasant as 
riding and hot baths and food and sleep. But I never 
have sought my pleasure. What I always have sought 
is my happiness. And that on the whole is our 
highest duty. Don’t swear. There is nothing selfish 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


155 

about it, if you are made like I am. Because the 
thing that above all others makes me happy is to con- 
trive that other people should have their own way. 
That is why I never dream of interfering in what 
other people want. If they really want it, I do all 
I can to get it for them. I was not ever thus, as the 
hymn says, but I am so now. The longer I live the 
more clearly I see that it is impossible to understand 
why other people want what they want, but it seems 
to me that all that concerns me is that they do want. 

I can see how they want, but never why. I can’t 

think, darling, for instance, why you want to make 

those excruciating noises, but I see how. Here ’s 

Jack. Jack, come and tell us about Utopia.” 

Edith had laid her double-bass down on the ground 
of the terrace. 

“Yes, but I want to sit down,” he said. “May I 
sit on it, Edith ? ” 

Edith screamed. He took this as a sign that he 
might not, and sat on the terrace wall. 

“Utopia?” he asked. “You’ve got to be a man 
to begin with and then you have to marry Dodo. It 
does the rest.” 

“ What is It?” 

“That which does it, your consciousness. Dodo, 
it would send up rents in Utopia if Seymour went to 
a nice girls’ school. He is rather silly, and wants the 
nonsense knocked out of him.” 

“ But there you make a mistake,” said she. “ Al- 
most every one who is nice is nice because the non- 
sense has not been knocked out of him. People with- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


156 

out heaps of nonsense are merely prigs. Indeed that 
is the best definition of a prig, one who has lost 
his capability for nonsense. Look at Edith! She 
does n’t know she ’s nonsensical, but she is. And she 
thinks she is serious all the time with her great boots 
and her great double-bass and her French horns. Oh 
me, oh me! The reasonable people in the world are 
the ruin of it; they spoil the sunshine. Look at the 
abominable Liberal party with terrible, reasonable 
schemes for scullery-maids. They are all quite ex- 
cellent, and it is for that reason they are so hopeless. 

“ It is moreover a great liberty to take with people 
to go about ameliorating them. I should be furious 
if anybody wanted to ameliorate me. Darling, Bishop 
Algie the other day said he always prayed for my 
highest good. I begged him not to, because if his 
prayers were answered, Providence might think I 
should be better for a touch of typhoid. You can’t 
tell what strange roundabout ways Providence may 
have. So he promised to stop praying for me, be- 
cause he is so understanding and knew what I meant. 
But wherl Lloyd George wants to give scullery-maids 
a happy old age with a canary in the window it is 
even worse. It is so sensible: I can see them sitting 
dismally in the room listening to their canary, when 
they would be much more comfortable in a nice work- 
house, with Edith and me bringing them packets of 
tea and flannel. Don’t let us talk politics: there is 
nothing that saps the intellect so much.” 

“ Edith and I have not talked much yet,” observed 
Jack. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


157 

“ No, you are listening to Utopia, which as I said, 
consists largely of nonsense. If you are to be happy, 
you must play, you must be ridiculous, you must want 
everybody else to be ridiculous. But everybody must 
take his own absurdities quite seriously.” 

Dodo sat up, pulled Jack’s cigarette case from his 
pocket and helped herself. 

“ The Greeks and Romans were so right,” she said, 
“ they had a slave class, though with them it was an 
involuntary slave class. We ought to have a volun- 
tary slave class, consisting of all the people who like 
working for a cause. There are heaps of politicians 
who naturally belong to it, and clergymen and lawyers 
and nationalists, all the people in fact who die when 
they retire, and are disappointed when they have not 
got offices and churches to go to. You can recognize 
a slave the moment you see him. He always, socially, 
wants to open the door or shut the window, or pick 
up your gloves. The moment you see that look in 
a man’s eye, that sort of itch to be useful, you should 
be able to give secret information and make him a 
slave at £200 a year, instead of making him a cabinet 
minister or a bishop or a director of a company. He 
wants work: let him have it. Edith, darling, you 
would be a slave instantly, and the State would pro- 
vide you with double-basses and cornets. I haven’t 
thought it all completely out, since it only occurred 
to me this minute, but it seems to me an almost pain- 
fully sound scheme now that I mention it. Think 
of the financiers you would get ! There would be poor 
Mr. Carnegie and Rockefeller and — and the whole of 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


158 

the Rothschild house, and Barings and Speyers all 
quite happy, because they are happy when they work. 
And all the millions they make — how they make it, 
I don’t know, unless they buy gold cheap and sell it 
dear, which .1 believe is really what they do — all 
the money they make would be at the disposal of those 
who know how to spend it. I suppose I am a Social- 
ist.” 

Edith put her forehead in her hands. 

“ I don’t know what you are talking about,” she 
said. 

“ I have my doubts myself,” said Dodo ingenuously. 
“ It began about Nadine’s marriage and then drifted. 
You get to all sorts of strange places if you drift, 
both morally and physically. It really seems very un- 
fair, that if you don’t ever resist anything, you go 
to the bad. It looks as if evil was stronger than good, 
but Algie shall explain it to me. He can explain al- 
most anything, including wasps. Jack, dear, do make 
me stop talking ; you and the sunshine and Edith have 
gone to my head, and given me the babbles.” 

“ I insist on your going on talking,” said Edith. 

I want to know how you can let Nadine marry with- 
out love.” 

“ Because a great many of our unfortunate sex, 
dear, never fall in love, as I mean it, at all. But I 
would not have them not marry. They often make 
excellent wives and mothers. And I think Nadine 
is one of those. She is as nearly in love with Hugh 
as she has ever been with anybody, but she quite 
certainly will not marry him. Here she is ; I daresay 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


159 

she will explain it all herself. My darling, come and 
talk matrimony shop to Edith, Jack and I are going 
for a short ride before lunch. Will you be in when 
Hugh comes ? ” 

Nadine sat down in the chair from which Dodo had 
risen. She was dressed in a very simple linen dress 
of cornflower blue, that made the whites and pinks of 
her face look absolutely dazzling. 

“ Yes, I will wait for him,” she said. “ Seymour 
thought it would be kinder if he went to meet him at 
the station, so that Hughie could get rid of some of the 
hate on the way up. He has perception — des apergus 
tres-fins. And I will explain anything to anybody 
in the interval. I want to be married, and so does 
Seymour, and we think it will answer admirably if 
we marry each other. There is very little else to say. 
We are not foolish about each other — ” 

“ I find you are extremely modern,” interrupted 
Edith. 

“ You speak as if you did not like that,” said Na- 
dine ; “ but surely somebody has got to be modern if 
we are going to get on at all. Otherwise the world 
remains stock-still, or goes back. I do not think it 
would be amusing to be Victorian again ; indeed there 
would be no use in us trying. We should be such 
obvious forgeries, Seymour particularly. I consider 
it lucky that he was not born earlier; if he had grown 
up as he is in Victorian days, they would certainly 
have done away with him somehow. Or his mother 
would have exposed him in Battersea Park like 
CEdipus.” 


i6o 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


Edith leaned over the terrace wall, and took the 
double-bass bow out of the tall clump of sweet peas. 

“ There are exactly two things in the world worth 
doing,” she said, “to love and to work. Certainly 
you don’t work, Nadine, and I don’t believe you love.” 

Nadine looked at her a moment in silent hostility. 

“ That is a very comfortable reflection,” she ob- 
served, “ for you who like working better than any- 
thing else in the world except perhaps golf. I wonder 
you did not say there were three things in the world 
worth doing, making that damned game the third.” 

Edith had spoken with her usual cock-sure breezy 
enthusiasm, and looked up surprised at a certain 
venom and bitterness that underlay the girl’s reply. 

“ My dear Nadine! ” she said. “ What is the mat- 
ter?” 

Nadine glared at her a moment, and then broke into 
rapid speech. 

“ Do you think I would not give the world to be 
able to love ? ” she said. “ Do you think I send Hugh 
marching through hell for fun? You say I am heart- 
less, as if it was my fault ! Would you go to a blind 
man in the street and say, * You beast, you brute, why 
don’t you see ? ’ Is he blind for fun ? Am I like this 
for fun?” 

She got up from her seat and came and stood in 
front of Edith, flushed with an unusual color, and 
continued more rapidly yet, emphasizing her points 
by admirable gesticulations of her hands. Indeed 
they seemed to have speech on their own account : they 
were extraordinarily eloquent. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 161 

“Do you know you make me lose my temper?” 
she said. “ That is a rare thing with me ; I seldom 
lose it ; but when I do it is quite gone, and I don’t care 
what I say, so long as it is what I mean. For the 
minute my temper is absolutely vanished, and I shall 
make the most of its absence. Who are you to judge 
and condemn me ? and give me rules for conduct, how 
work and love are the only things worth doing? 
What do you know about me? Either you are abso- 
lutely ignorant about me, or so stupid that the very 
cabbages seem clever by you. And you go telling me 
what to do ! And what do you know about love ? To 
look at you, as little as you know about me. Yes; 
no wonder you sit there with your mouth open staring 
at me, you and your foolish, great fat-bellied bloated 
violin. You are not accustomed to be spoken to like 
this. It never occurred to you that I would give the 
world to be able to love as Jill and Polly and Mary 
and Minnie love. I do not go about saying that any 
more than a cripple calls attention to his defect: he 
tries to be brave and conceal it. But that is me, a 
dwarf, a hunchback, a cretin of the soul. That is 
the matter with me, and you are so foolish that it 
never occurred to you that I wanted to be like other 
people. You thought it was a pose of which I was 
proud, I think. There ! Now do not do that again.” 

Nadine paused, and then sighed. 

“ I feel better,” she said, “ but quite red in the face. 
However, I have got my temper back again. If you 
like I will apologize for losing it.” 

Edith jumped up and kissed Nadine. When she 


1 62 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

intended to kiss anybody she did it, whether the victim 
liked it or not. 

“ My dear, you are quite delightful,” she said. “ I 
thoroughly deserve every word. I was utterly igno- 
rant of you. But I am not stupid : if you will go on, 
you will find I shall understand.” 

Suddenly Nadine felt utterly lonely. All she had 
said of herself in her sudden exasperation was per- 
fectly genuine, and now when her equanimity returned, 
she felt as if she must tell somebody about this iso- 
lation, which for the moment, in any case, was sin- 
cerely and deeply hers. That she was a girl of a 
hundred moods was quite true, but it was equally true 
that each mood was authentically inspired from with- 
in. Many of them, no doubt, were far from edifying, 
but none could be found guilty of the threadbare 
tawdriness of pose. She nodded at Edith. 

“ It is as I say,” she said. “ I hate myself, but here 
I am, and here soon will Hugh be. It is a disease, 
this heartlessness: I suffer from it. It is rather com- 
mon too, but commoner among girls than boys.” 

Then queerly and unexpectedly, but still honestly, 
her intellectual interest in herself, that cold egoism 
that was characteristic of another side of her, awoke. 

“ Yet it is interesting,” she said, “ because it is out 
of this sort of derangement that types and species 
come. For a million years the fish we call the sole 
had a headache because one of its eyes was slowly 
traveling through its head. For a million years man 
was uncomfortable where the tail once came, because 
it was drying up. For a million years there will be 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


163 

girls like me, poor wretches, and at the end there will 
be another type of woman, a third sex, perhaps, who 
from not caring about these things which Nature evi- 
dently meant them to care about have become dif- 
ferent. And all the boys like Seymour will be ap- 
proximating to the same type from the other side, 
so that eventually we shall be like the angels — ” 

“ My dear, why angels ? ” asked Edith. 

“ Neither marrying nor giving in marriage. La, 
la ! And I was saying only the other day to him that 
I wished to marry half-a-dozen men! What a good 
thing that one does not feel the same every day. It 
would be atrociously dull. But in the interval, it is 
lonely now and then for those of us who are not 
exactly and precisely of the normal type of girl. But 
if you have no heart, you have to follow your intelli- 
gence, to go where your intelligence leads you, and 
then wave a flag. Perhaps nobody sees it, or only the 
wrong sort of person, who says, * What is that idiot- 
girl waving that rag for?’ But she only waves it 
because she is lost, and hopes that somebody will see 
it.” 

Nadine laughed with her habitual gurgle. 

“ We are all lost,” she said. “ But we want to be 
found. It is only the stupidest who do not know they 
are lost. Well, I have — what is Hugh’s word? ah, 
yes, — I have gassed enough for one morning. Ah, 
and there is the motor coming back from the station. 
I am glad that Hugh has not thrown Seymour out, 
and driven forwards and backwards over him.” 

The motor at this moment was passing not more 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


164 

than a couple of hundred yards off through the park 
which lay at the foot of the steep garden terraces 
below them. From there the road wound round in 
a long loop towards the house. 

“ I shall go to meet Hugh at once, and get it over,” 
said Nadine; and thereupon she whistled so shrilly and 
surprisingly on her fingers, that Hugh, who was driv- 
ing, looked up and saw her over the terrace. She 
made staccato wavings to him, and he got out. 

“ You whistled the octave of B. in alt.,” remarked 
Edith appreciatively. 

“ And my courage is somewhere about the octave 
of B. in profundis,” said Nadine. “ I dread what 
Hugh may say to me.” 

“ I will go and talk to him,” said Edith. “ I under- 
stand you now, Nadine. I will tell him.” 

Nadine smiled very faintly. 

“ That is sweet of you,” she said, “ but I am afraid 
it would n’t be quite the same thing.” 

Nadine walked down the steep flight of steps in 
the middle of the terrace, and out through the Venetian 
gate into the park. Hugh had just arrived at it from 
the other side, and they met there. No word of 
greeting passed between them ; they but stood looking 
at each other. He saw the girl he loved, neither more 
nor less than that, and did not know if she looked well 
or ill, or if her gown was blue or pink or rainbowed. 
To him it was Nadine who stood there. But she saw 
details, not being blinded: he was big and square, he 
looked a picture of health, brown-eyed, clear of skin, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


165 

large-mouthed, with a habit of smiling written 
strongly there. He had taken off his hat, as was 
usual with him, and as usual his hair looked a little 
disordered, as if he had been out on a windy morning. 
There was that slight thrusting outwards of his chin 
which suggested that he would meet argument with 
obstinacy, but that kind and level look from his eyes 
that suggested an honesty and kindliness hardly met 
with outside the charming group of living beings 
known as dogs. He was like a big, kind dog, polite 
to strangers, kind to friends, hopelessly devoted to 
the owner of his soul. But to-day his mouth did not 
indulge its habit: he was quite grave. 

“Why did you kiss me the other night?” he 
said. 

Nadine had already repented of that rash act. Be- 
ing conscious of her own repentance, it seemed to her 
rather nagging of him to allude to it. 

“ I meant nothing,” she said. “ Hughie, are we 
going to stand like posts here? Shan’t we stroll — ” 

“ I don’t see why : let us stand like posts. You did 
kiss me. Or do you kiss everybody? ” 

Nadine considered this for a moment. 

“ No, I don’t kiss everybody,” she said. “ I never 
kissed a man before. It was stupid of me. The mo- 
ment after I had done it I wanted to kiss anybody to 
show you it did n’t mean anything. You are like the 
Inquisition. My next answer is that I have kissed 
Seymour since. I — I don’t particularly like kissing 
him. But it is usual.” 

“ And you are going to marry him ? ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


1 66 

Nadine’s courage which she had confessed was a 
B. in profundis, sank into profundissima. 

“ Yes, I am going to marry him,” she said. 

“Why? You don’t love him. And he doesn’t 
love you.” 

“ I don’t love anybody,” said Nadine quickly. “ I 
have said that so often that I am tired of saying it. 
Girls often marry without being in love. It just hap- 
pens. What do you want? Would you like me to 
go on spinstering just because I won’t marry you? 
That I will not do. You know why. You love me. 
I can’t marry you unless I love you. Ah, mon Dieu , 
it sounds like Ollendorf. But I should be cheating 
you if I married you, and I will not cheat you. You 
would expect from me what you bring to me, and it 
would be right that I should bring it you, and I cannot. 
If you did n’t love me like that, I would marry you 
to-morrow, and the trousseau might go and hang it- 
self. Mama would give me some blouses and stock- 
ings, and you would buy me a tooth-brush. Yes, this 
is very flippant, but when serious people are goaded 
they become flippant. Oh, Hughie, I wish I was dif- 
ferent. But I am not different. And what is it you 
came down here about? Is it to ask me again to 
marry you, and to ask me not to marry my dear little 
Seymour ? ” 

“Little?” he asked. 

“ It was a term of endearment. Besides, it is not 
his fault that he does not weigh fourteen stones — ” 

“ Stone,” said he with the tremor of a smile. 

“ No, stones,” said Nadine. “ I choose that it 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


167 

should be stones : fourteen great square lumps. 
Hughie, don’t catch my words up and correct me. I 
am serious and all you can answer is * stone ’ instead 
of ‘ stones.’ ” 

“ I did it without thinking,” he said. “ I only fell 
back into the sort of speech there used to be between 
us. It was like that, serious one moment and silly 
the next. I spoke without thinking, as we used to 
speak. I won’t do it again.” 

“And why not?” demanded Nadine. 

“ Because now that you tell me you really are go- 
ing to marry Seymour, everything is changed between 
us. This is what I came to tell you. I am not go- 
ing to hang about, a mixture between a valet and an 
ami de la maison. You have chosen now. When 
you refused me before, there was always in my mind 
the hope that some day you would give me a different 
answer. I waited long and patiently and willingly for 
that chance. Now the chance no longer exists. You 
have scratched me — ” 

Nadine drew her eyebrows together. 

“ Scratched you ? ” she said. “ Oh, I see, a race : 
not nails.” 

“And I am definitely and finally out of it.” 

“ You mean you are no longer among my friends ? ” 
asked Nadine. 

“ I shall not be with you so much or so intimately. 
We must talk over it just this once. We will stroll 
if you like. It is too hot for you standing in the sun 
without a hat.” 

“ No, we will settle it here and now,” said she 


1 68 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

quickly. “ You don’t understand. My marriage 
with Seymour will make no difference in the quality 
of affection I have always had for you. Why should 
I give up my best friend? Why should you? ” 

“ Because you are much more than my best friend, 
and I am obliged to give up, at last, that idea of you. 
You have forced me to see that it is not to be realized. 
And I won’t sit about your house, to have people 
pointing at me, and saying to each other, * That ’s the 
one who is so frightfully in love with her.’ It may 
sound priggish, but I don’t choose to be quite so un- 
manly as that. Nor would you much respect me if I 
did so choose.” 

“ But I never did respect you,” said Nadine quickly. 
“ I never thought of you as respectable or otherwise. 
It does n’t come in. You may steal and cheat at 
cards, and I shall not care. I like whom I like : I like 
you tremendously. What do you mean you are going 
to do? Go to Burmah or Bengal? I don’t want to 
lose you, Hughie. It is unkind of you. Besides, we 
shall not marry for a long time yet, and even then — 
Ah, it is the old tale, the old horror called Me all over 
again — I don’t love anybody. Many are delightful 
and I am so fond of them. But the other, the ab- 
sorption, the gorgeous foolishness of it all, it is away 
outside of me, a fairy-tale and I am grown up now 
and say , 4 For me it is not true.’ ” 

Hugh came a step nearer her. 

“ You poor devil,” he said gently. 

Tears, as yet unshed, gathered in Nadine’s eyes. 
They were fairly creditable tears: they were not at 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


169 

any rate like the weepings of the great prig-prince 
and compounded merely of “ languor and self-pity,” 
but sorrow for Hugh was one ingredient in them. 
Yet in the main they were for herself, since the only 
solvent for egoism is love. 

“ Yes, I am that,” she said. “ I ’m a poor devil. 
I ’m lost, as I said to that foolish Arbuthnot woman 
with her feet and great violin. Hark, she is playing 
it again : she is a big ‘ C major ’ ! She has been scold- 
ing me, though if it comes to that I gave it her back 
with far more gamin in my tongue. And now you 
say you will not be friends any longer, and Mama 
does not like my marrying Seymour, though she does 
not argue, and there is no one left but myself, and I 
hate myself. Oh, I am lost, and I wave my flags 
and there is no one who sees or understands. I shall 
go back to Daddy, I think, and he and I will drink 
ourselves drunk, and I shall have the red nose. But 
you are the worst of them all, Hugh! It is a very 
strange sort of love you have for me, if all it can 
do is to desert me. And yet the other day I felt as 
you feel; I felt it would only be fair to you to see 
you less. I am a damned weathercock. I go this 
way and that, but the wind is always cold. I am 
sorry for you, I want you to be happy, I would make 
you happy myself, if I could.” 

Nadine’s eyes had quite overflowed, and as she 
poured out this remarkable series of lamentations, 
she dabbed at her moistened cheeks. Yet Hugh, 
though he was so largely to blame, as it seemed, for 
this emotion, and though all the most natural instincts 


i jo DODO’S DAUGHTER 

in him longed to yield, knew that deep in him his de- 
termination was absolutely unsoftened. It, and his 
love for Nadine were of the quality of nether mill- 
stones. But all the rest of him longed to comfort 
her. 

“ Oh, Nadine, don’t cry,” he said. “ I ’m not 
worth crying about, to begin with.” 

“ It is not you alone I cry about,” said Nadine with 
justice. “ I cry a little for you, every third drop is 
for you. The rest is quite for myself.” 

“ It is never worth while to cry for oneself,” he 
said. 

“ Who wants it to be worth while ? I feel like cry- 
ing, therefore I cry. Hardly anything I do is worth 
while, yet I go on doing, and I get tired of it before 
it is done. Already I am tired of crying, and besides 
it gives me the red nose without going to Daddy. 
Not you and I together are worth making myself 
ugly for. But you are so disagreeable, Hughie : first 
I wanted to stroll, and you said ‘ no,’ and then when 
I did n’t want to stroll you said ‘ yes,’ and you are n’t 
going to be friends with me, and I feel exactly as I 
used to feel when I was six years old, and it rained. 
Come, let us sit down a little, and you shall tell me 
what you mean to do, and how it will be between us. 
I will be very good: I will bless any plan you make, 
like a bishop. It shall all be as you will. I owe you 
so much and there is no way by which I can ever repay 
you. I don’t want to be a curse to you, Hughie ; I 
don’t indeed.” 

She sat down, leaning against a great beech trunk, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


171 

and he lay on the coarse meadow-grass beside her. 

“ I know you don’t,” he said. 

He looked at her steadily, as she finished mopping 
her cheeks. Her little burst of tears had not made 
her nose at all red; it had but given a softness to her 
eyes. Never before had he so strongly felt her way- 
ward, irresistible charm, which it was so impossible 
to analyse or explain. Indeed, if it came to analysis 
there were strange ingredients there; there was ego- 
ism as complete, and yet as disarming, as that of a 
Persian kitten; there was the unreasonableness of a 
spoilt child; there was the inconsiderateness and un- 
reliability of an April day, which alternates its gleams 
of the saffron sun of spring with cold rain and plump- 
ing showers. 

Yet he felt that there was something utterly 
adorable, wholly womanly that lay sheathed in these 
more superficial imperfections, something that stirred 
within them conscious of the coming summer, just 
as the life embalmed within the chrysalis stirs, giv- 
ing token of the time when the husk shall burst, 
and that which was but a gray crawling thing shall 
be wafted on wings of silver emblazoned with scarlet 
and gold. Then there was her beauty too, which 
drew his eyes after the wonder of its perfection, and 
was worthy of the soul that he divined in her. And 
finally (and this perhaps to him was the supreme mag- 
net) there was the amazing and superb quality of her 
vitality, that sparkled and effervesced in all she did 
and said, so that for him her speech was like song 
or light, and to be with her was to be bathed in the 


172 DODO'S DAUGHTER 

effulgence of her spirit. And Hugh, looking at her 
now, felt, as always, that his self slipped from him, 
so that he was conscious of her only; she possessed 
him, and he lay like the sea with the dazzle of sun- 
light on it that both reflects the radiance and absorbs 
it. 

Then he sat up: and half turned from her, for 
there were things to be said yet that he could scarcely 
say while he looked at her. 

“ I know you don’t mean to be a curse to me,” he 
said, “ and you could n’t be if you tried. Whatever 
you did, and you are going to do a pretty bad thing 
now in marrying that chap, must be almost insignifi- 
cant compared to the love which you have made exist 
in me.” 

He paused a moment. 

“ I have thought it all out,” he said, “ but it is 
difficult, and you must give me time. I ’m not quick 
like you as you know very well, but sometimes I get 
there. It is like this.” 

She was watching him and listening to him, with 
a curious intentness and nervousness, as a prisoner 
about to receive sentence may watch the judge. Her 
hands clasped and unclasped themselves, her breath 
came short and irregular. It seemed as if she, for 
once, had failed to understand him whom she had 
said she knew too fatally well. Just now, at any rate, 
and on this topic, it was clear she did not know what 
he was going to propose. Yet it was scarcely a pro- 
posal she waited for; she waited for his word, his 
ultimatum. Till now she had dominated him com- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


173 

pletely with her quick wit, her far more subtle in- 
telligence, her beauty, her vitality. But for once now, 
he was her master: she felt she had to bow to his 
simplicity and his uncomplicated strength, his brute 
virility. It was but faintly that she recognized it ; the 
recognition came to her consciousness but as an 
echo. But the voice that made the echo came from 
within. 

“ I have received my dismissal from you,’’ he said, 
“ as head of your house, as your possible husband. 
As I said, I won’t take the place of the tame cat in- 
stead. God knows I don’t want to cut adrift from 
you, and I can’t cut adrift from you. But my aspira- 
tion is rendered impossible, and therefore both my 
mental attitude to you and my conduct must be altered. 
I daresay Berts and Tommy and Esther and all the 
rest of them will go lying about on your bed, and 
smoking in your bedroom just as before. Well, I 
can’t be intimate in that sort of way any longer. You 
said you never reckoned whether you respected me 
or not, and that may be so. But without wanting to 
be heavy about it, I have got to respect myself. I 
can’t help being your lover, but I can help tickling 
my love, so to speak, making it squirm and wriggle. 
Whether I am respectable or not, it is, and I shan’t 
— as I said — I shan’t tickle it. Also though I would 
be hurt in any other way for your sake, I won’t be 
hurt like that. Don’t misunderstand me. It is be- 
cause my love for you is not one atom abated, that I 
won’t play tricks with it. But when it says to me, 
‘ I can’t bear it,’ I shall not ask to bear it. You al- 


174 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

ways found me too easy to understand: I think this 

is another instance of it.” 

He paused a moment and Nadine gave a little sob- 
bing sigh. 

“ Oh, Hughie,” she began. 

“ No, don’t interrupt,” he said. “ I want to go 
through with it, without discussion. There is no 
discussion possible. I would n’t argue with God about 
it. I should say: ‘ You made me an ordinary human 
man, and you ’ve got to take the consequences. In 
the same way, you have chosen Seymour, and I am 
telling you what is the effect. Now — you are tired 
of hearing it — I love you. And therefore I want 
your happiness without reservation. You have de^ 
cided it will conduce to your happiness to marry Sey- 
mour. Therefore, Nadine — this is quite simple and 
true — I want you to do so. I may rage and storm 
on the surface, but essentially I don’t. Somewhere 
behind all I may say and do, there is, as you once said 
to me, the essential me. Well, that says to you, * God 
bless you.’ That ’s all.” 

He unclasped his hands from round his knees, and 
stood up. 

“ I ’m going away now,” he said. “ I thought 
when I came down it might take a long time to tell 
you this. But it has taken ten minutes only. I 
thought perhaps you would have a lot to say about it, 
and I daresay you have, but I find that it does n’t con- 
cern me. Don’t think me brutal, any more than I 
think you brutal. I am made like this, and you are 
made otherwise. By all means, let us see each other, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


175 

often I hope, but not just yet. I ’ve got to adjust 
myself, you see, and you haven’t. You never loved 
me, and so what you have done makes no difference 
in your feelings towards me. But I ’ve got to get 
used to it.” 

She looked up at him, as he stood there in front 
of her with the green lights through the beech-leaves 
playing on him. 

“ You make me utterly miserable, Hugh,” she said. 

“ No, I don’t. There is no such thing as misery 
without love. You don’t care for me in the way that 
you could — could give you the privilege of being 
miserable.” 

For one half-second she did not follow him. But 
immediately the quickness of her mind grasped what 
came so easily and simply to him. 

“Ah, I see,” she said, her intelligence leading her 
away from him by the lure of the pleasure of per- 
ception. “When you are like that, it is even a joy 
to be miserable. Is that so ? ” 

“Yes, I suppose that is it. Your misery is a — a 
wireless message from your love. Bad news, perhaps, 
but still a communication.” 

She got up. 

“Ah, my dear,” she said, “that must be so. I 
never thought of it. But I can infer that you are 
right. Somehow you are quickened, Hughie. You 
are giving me a series of little shocks. You were 
never quite like that before.” 

“ I was always exactly like that,” he said. “ I 
have told you nothing that I have not always known.” 


176 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Again her brilliant egoism asserted itself. 

“ Then it is I who am quickened,” she said* 
“ There is nothing that quickens me so much as being 
hurt. It makes all your nerves awake and active. 
Yes; you have hurt me, and you are not sorry. I 
do not mind being hurt, if it makes me more alive. 
Ah, the only point of life is to be alive. If life was 
a crown of thorns, how closely I would press it round 
my head, so that the points wounded and wounded 
me. It is so shallow just to desire to be happy. I 
do not care whether I am happy or not, so long as I 
feel. Give me all the cancers and consumptions and 
decayed teeth, and gout and indigestion and necrosis 
of the spine and liver if there is such a thing, so that 
I may feel. I don't feel: it is that which ails me. 
I have a sane body and a sane mind, and I am tired 
of sanity. Kick me, Hughie, strike me, spit at me, 
make me angry and disgusted, anything, oh, anything ! 
I want to feel, and I want to feel about you most par- 
ticularly, and I can’t, and there is Edith playing on 
her damned double-bass again. I hear it, I am con- 
scious of it, and it is only the things that don’t matter 
which I am conscious of. I am conscious of your 
brown eyes, my dear, and your big mouth and your 
trousers and boots, and the cow that is wagging its 
tail and looking at us as if it was going to be sick. 
Its dinner, I remember, goes into its stomach, and 
then comes up again, and then it becomes milk or a 
calf or something. It has nine stomachs, or is it a 
cat that has nine lives, or nine tails ? Iam sure about 
nine. Oh, Hughie, I see the outside aspect of things, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


177 

and I can’t get below. I am a flat stone that you send 
to make — chickens is it ? — no, ducks and drakes 
over a pond : flop, flop, the foolish thing. And some- 
how you with your stupidity and your simplicity, you 
go down below, and drown, and stick in the mud, and 
are so uncomfortable and miserable. And I am sorry 
for you: I hate you to be uncomfortable and miser- 
able, and oh, I envy you. You suffer and are kind, 
and don’t envy, and are not puffed up, and I envy your 
misery, and am puffed up because I am so desirable, 
and I don’t really suffer — you are quite right — and 
I am not kind. Hugh, I can’t bear that cow, drive 
it away, it will eat me and make milk of me. And 
there, look, are Mama and Papa Jack, coming back 
from their ride. Papa Jack loves her; his face is like 
a face in a spoon when he looks at her, and I know she 
is learning to love him. She no longer thinks when 
she is talking to him, as to whether he will be pleased. 
That is a sure sign. She is beginning to be herself, 
at her age too ! She does n’t think about thinking 
about him any more: it comes naturally. And I am 
not myself : I am something else : rather, I am nothing 
else: I am nothing at all, just some intelligence, and 
some flesh and blood and bones. I am not a real 
person. It is that which is the matter. I long to 
be a real person, and I can’t. I crawl sideways over 
other things like a crab : I wave my pincers and pinch. 
I am lost: I am nothing! And yet I know — how 
horribly I know it — there is something behind, more 
than the beastly idol with the wooden ey^, which is all 
I know of my real self. If only I could find it! If 


178 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

only I could crack myself up like a nut and get to a 
kernel. For God’s sake, Hughie, take the nut-crackers, 
and crack me. It is idle to ask you to do it. You 
have tried often enough. You will have to get a 
stronger nut-cracker. Meantime I am a nut, just a 
nut, with its hard bright shell. Seymour is another 
nut. There we shall be.” 

Hugh caught her by the wrists. 

“ I can’t stand it, Nadine,” he said. “ You feel 
nothing for him. He is nothing to you. How can 
you marry him ? It ’s profane : it ’s blasphemous. 
You say you can give nothing to anybody. Well, 
make the best of yourself. I can give all I am to you. 
Is n’t that better than absolute nil? You can’t give, 
but let me give. It ’s worship, it ’s all there is — ” 

She stood there with her wrists in his hands, his 
strong fingers bruising and crushing them. She could 
have screamed for the pain of it. 

“ No, and a thousand times no,” she said. “ I 
won’t cheat.” 

“ I ask you to cheat.” 

“ And I won’t. Hughie dear, press harder, hurt 
me more, so that you may see I am serious. You may 
bite the flesh off me, you may strangle me, and I will 
stand quite still and let you do it. But I won’t marry 
you. I won’t cheat you. My will is stronger than 
your body, and I would die sooner.” 

“ Then your marriage is a pure farce,” said he. 

“ Come and laugh at it,” she said. 


CHAPTER VII 


H UGH’S intention had been to stay several days, 
at the least, with the Chesterfords, and he had 
brought down luggage that would last any reasonable 
person a fortnight. Unluckily he had not foreseen 
the very natural effect that the sight of Seymour 
would have on him, and as soon as lunch was over 
he took his hostess into a corner and presented the 
situation with his usual simplicity. 

“ It is like this. Aunt Dodo,” he said. “ I did n’t 
realize exactly what it meant to me till I saw Seymour 
again. He drove me up from the station, and it got 
worse all the time. I thought perhaps since Nadine 
had chosen him, I might see him differently. I think 
perhaps I do, but it is worse. It is quite hopeless: 
the best thing I can do is to go away again at once.” 

Dodo had lit two cigarettes by mistake, and since, 
during their ride Jack had (wantonly, so she thought) 
accused her of wastefulness, she was smoking them 
both, holding one in each hand, in alternate whiffs. 
But she threw one of them away at this, and laid her 
hand on Hugh’s knee. 

“ I know, my dear, and I am so dreadfully sorry,” 
she said. “ I was sure it would be so, and that ’s 
why I did n’t want you to come here. I knew it was 
179 


i8o 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


no good. I can see you feel really unwell whenever 
you catch sight of Seymour or hear anything he says. 
And about Nadine? Did you have a nice talk with 
her?” 

Hugh considered. 

“ I don’t think I should quite call it nice,” he said. 
“ I think I should call it necessary. Anyhow, we have 
had it and — and I quite understand her now. As 
that is so, I shall go away again this afternoon. It 
was a mistake to come at all.” 

“ Yes, but probably it was a necessary mistake. In 
certain situations mistakes are necessary : I mean 
whatever one does seems to be wrong. If you had 
stopped away, you would have felt it wrong too.” 

“ And will you answer two questions, Aunt Dodo ? ” 
he asked. 

“Yes, I will certainly answer them. If they are 
very awkward ones I may not answer them quite 
truthfully.” 

“ Well, I ’ll try. Do you approve of Nadine’s mar- 
riage? Has it your blessing?” 

“Yes, my dear: truthfully, it has. But it is right 
to tell you that I give my blessings rather easily, and 
when it is clearly no use attempting to interfere in 
a matter, it is better to bless it than curse it. But if 
you ask me whether I would have chosen Seymour as 
Nadine’s husband, out of all the possible ones, why, 
I would not. I thought at one time that perhaps it 
was going to be Jack. But then Jack chose me, and, 
as we all know, a girl may not marry her stepfather, 
particularly if her mother is alive and well. But I 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


181 


should not have chosen you either, Hughie, if your 
question implies that. I used to think I would, but 
when Nadine explained to me the other day, I rather 
agreed with her. Of course she has explained to 
you.” 

Hugh looked at her with his honest, trustworthy, 
brown eyes. 

“ Several times,” he said. “ But if I agreed, I 
should n’t be worrying. Now another question : Do 
you think she will be happy ? ” 

“ Yes, up to her present capacity. If I did not 
think she would be happy, I would not bless it. Dear 
Edith, for example, thinks it is a shocking and terri- 
ble marriage. For her I daresay it would be, but 
then it is n’t she whom Seymour proposed to marry. 
They would be a most remarkable couple, would they 
not ? I think Edith would kill him, with the intention 
of committing suicide after, and then determine that 
there had been enough killing for one day. And the 
next day suicide would appear quite out of the ques- 
tion. So she would write a funeral march.” 

Dodo held the admirable sensible view that if dis- 
cussion on a particular topic is hopeless, it is much 
better to abandon it, and talk as cheerfully as may be 
about something different. But this entertaining di- 
version altogether failed to divert Hugh. 

“ You said she would be happy up to her present 
capacity ? ” he reminded her. 

“Yes: that is simple, is it not? We develop our 
capacity for happiness; and misery, also, develops as 
well. Whether Nadine’s capacity will develop much, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


182 

I cannot tell. If it does, she may not be happy up to 
it. But who knows? We cannot spend our lives in 
arranging for contingencies that may never take place, 
and changes in ourselves that may never occur.” 

Dodo looked in silence for a moment at his grave 
reliable face, and felt a sudden wonder at Nadine for 
having chosen as she had done. And yet her reason 
for rejecting this extremely satisfactory youth was 
sound enough, their intellectual levels were such miles 
apart. But Dodo, though she did not express her 
further thought, had it very distinct in her mind. “ If 
she does develop emotionally like a woman,” she said 
to herself, “ there will not be a superfluity of happi- 
ness about. And she will look at you and wonder 
how she could have refused you.” 

But necessarily she did not say this, and Hugh got 
up. 

“ Well, then, at the risk of appearing a worse prig 
than John Sturgis,” he said, “ I may tell you that as 
long as Nadine is happy, the main object is accom- 
plished. My own happiness consists so largely in the 
fact of hers. Dear me, I wonder you are not sick at 
my sententiousness. I am quite too noble to live, but 
I don’t really want to die. Would it make Nadine 
happier if I told Seymour I should be a brother to 
him?” 

Dodo laughed. 

“ No, Hughie ; it would make her afraid that your 
brain had gone, or that you were going to be ill. It 
would only make her anxious. Is the motor around ? 
I am sorry you are going, but I think you are quite 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 183 

right to do so. Always propose yourself, whenever 
you feel like it.” 

“ I don’t feel like it at present,” said he. “ But 
thanks awfully. Aunt Dodo.” 

Dodo felt extremely warmly towards this young 
man, who was behaving so very well and simply. 

“ God bless you, dear Hugh,” she said, “ and give 
you your heart’s desire.” 

“ At present my heart’s desire appears to be making 
other plans for itself,” said Hugh. 

Esther had said once in a more than usually en- 
lightened moment, that Nadine’s friends did her feel- 
ing for her, and she observed them, and put what they 
felt into vivacious and convincing language and ap- 
plied it to herself. Certainly Hugh, when he drove 
away again this afternoon, was keenly conscious of 
what Nadine had talked about to Edith : he felt lost, 
and the flag he had industriously waved so long for 
her seemed to be entirely disregarded. He hardly 
knew what he had hoped would have come of this ill- 
conceived visit, which had just ended so abruptly, but 
a vague sense of Nadine’s engagement being too 
nightmare-like to be true had prompted him to go in 
person and find out. Also, it had seemed to him that 
when he was face to face with Nadine, asking her at 
point-blank range, whether she was going to marry 
Seymour, it was impossible that she should say “ Yes.” 
Something different must assuredly happen: either 
she would say it was a mistake, or something inside 
him must snap. But there was no mistake about it, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


184 

and nothing had snapped. The world proposed to 
proceed just as usual. And he could not decline to 
proceed with it; unless you died you were obliged 
to proceed, however intolerable the journey, however 
unthinkable the succession of days through which you 
were compelled to pass. Life was like a journey in 
an express train with no communication-cord. You 
were locked in, and could not stop the train by any 
means. Some people, of course, threw themselves 
out of the window, so to speak, and made violent ends 
to themselves ; but suicide is only possible to people of 
a certain temperament, and Hugh was incapable of 
even contemplating such a step. He felt irretrievably 
lost, profoundly wretched, and yet quite apart from 
the fact that he was temperamentally incapable of 
even wishing to commit suicide, the fact that Nadine 
was in the world (whatever Nadine was going to do) 
made it impossible to think of quitting it. That was 
the manner and characteristic of his love: his own 
unhappiness meant less to him than the fact of her. 

Until she had suggested it, the thought of traveling 
had not occurred to him; now, as he waited for his 
train at the station, he felt that at all costs he wanted 
to be on the move, to be employed in getting away 
from “ the intolerable anywhere ” that he might hap- 
pen to be in. Wherever he was, it seemed that any 
other place would be preferable, and this he supposed 
was the essence of the distraction that travel is sup- 
posed to give. His own rooms in town he felt would 
be soaked with associations of Nadine, so too would 
be the houses where he would naturally spend those 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 185 

coming months of August and September. Not till 
October, when his duties as a clerk in the Foreign 
Office called him back to town, had he anything with 
which he felt he could occupy himself. An excep- 
tional capacity for finding days too short and few, 
even though they had no duties to make the hours 
pass, had hitherto been his only brilliance ; now all gift 
of the kind seemed to have been snatched from him: 
he could not conceive what to do with to-morrow or 
the next day or any of the days that should follow. 
An allowance of seven days to the week seemed an 
inordinate superfluity; he was filled with irritation at 
the thought of the leisurely march of interminable 
time. 

He spent the evening alone, feeling that he was a 
shade less intolerable to himself than anybody else 
would have been; also, he felt incapable of the atten- 
tion which social intercourse demands. His mind 
seemed utterly out of his control, as unable to remain 
in one place as his body. Even if he thought of 
Nadine, it wandered, and he would notice that a pic- 
ture hung crooked, and jump up to straighten it. One 
such was a charming water-color sketch by Esther of 
the beach at Meering, with a splash of sunlight low 
in the West that, shining through a chimney in the 
clouds, struck the sea very far out, and made there a 
little island of reflected gold. Esther had put in this 
golden islet with some reluctance: she had said that 
even in Nature it looked unreal, and would look even 
more unreal in Art, especially when the artist hap- 
pened to be herself. But Nadine had voted with 


1 86 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Hugh on behalf of the golden island, just because it 
would appear unreal and incredible. “ It is only the 
unreal things that are vivid to us,” she had said, “ and 
the incredible things are just those which we believe 
in. Isn’t that so, Hughie?” 

How well he remembered her saying that ; her voice 
rang in his ears like a haunting tune! And while 
Esther made this artistic sacrifice to the god of things 
as they are not, he and Nadine strolled along the firm 
sandy beach, shining with the moisture of the receding 
tide. She had taken his arm, and just as her voice 
now sounded in his ears, so he could feel the pressure 
of her hand on his coat. 

“ You live among unrealities,” she said, “ although 
you are so simple and practical. You are thinking 
now that some day you and I will go to live on that 
golden island. But there is no island really, it is 
just like the rest of the sea, only the sun shines on it.” 

The bitter truth of that struck him now as applied 
to her and himself. Though she had refused him 
before, the sun shone on those days, and not until she 
had engaged herself to Seymour did the gold fade. 
Not until to-day when he had definite confirmation of 
that from her own lips, had he really believed in her 
rejection of him. He well knew her affection for him ; 
he believed, and rightly, that if she had been asked 
to name her best friend, she would have named none 
other than himself. It had been impossible for him 
not to be sanguine over the eventual outcome, and he 
had never really doubted that some day her affection 
would be kindled into flame. He had often told him- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 187 

self that it was through him that she would discover 
her heart. As she had suggested, he would some day- 
crack the nut for her, and show her her own kernel, 
and she would find it was his. 

And now all those optimisms were snuffed out. He 
had completely to alter and adjust his focus, but that 
could not be done at once. To-night he peered out, 
as it were upon familiar scenes, and found that his 
sight of them was misty and blurred. The whole 
world had vanished in cold gray mists. He was lost, 
quite lost, and . . . and there was a letter for him on 
the table which he had not noticed. The envelope 
was obviously of cheap quality, and was of those pro- 
portions which suggest a bill. A bill it was from a 
bookseller, of four shillings and sixpence, incurred 
over a book Nadine had said she wanted to read. He 
had passed the bookseller’s on his way home imme- 
diately afterwards and of course he had ordered it for 
her. She had not cared for it; she had found it un- 
real. “The man is meant to arouse my sympathy,” 
she had said, “ and only arouses my intense indiffer- 
ence. I am acutely uninterested in what happens to 
him.” Hugh felt as if she had been speaking of him- 
self, but the moment after knew that he did her an 
injustice. Even now he could not doubt the sincerity 
of her affection for him. But there was something 
frozen about it. It was like sleet, and he, like a 
parched land, longed for the pity of the soft rain. 

Hugh had a wholesome contempt for people who 
pity themselves, and it struck him at this point that 
he was in considerable danger of becoming despicable 


1 88 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 

in his own eyes. He had been capable of sufficient 
manliness to remove himself from Nadine that after- 
noon, but his solitary evening was not up to that 
standard ; he might as well have remained at Winston, 
if he was to endorse his refusal to dangle after her 
with nothing more virile than those drawling senti- 
mentalities. She was not for him : he had made this 
expedition to-day in order to convince himself on that 
point, and already his determination was showing it- 
self unstable, if it suffered him to dangle in mind 
though not in body. And yet how was it possible not 
to? Nadine, physically and tangibly, was certainly 
going to pass out of his life, but to eradicate her from 
his soul would be an act of spiritual suicide. Physic- 
ally there was no doubt that he would continue to 
exist without her, spiritually he did not see how ex- 
istence was possible on the same terms. But he need 
not drivel about her. There were always two ways 
of behaving after receiving a blow which knocked 
you down, and the one that commended itself most to 
Hugh was to get up again. 

Lady Ayr at the end of the London season had for 
years been accustomed to carry out some innocent 
plan for the improvement and discomfort of her 
family. One year she dragged them along the castles 
by the Loire, another she forced them, as if by pump- 
ing, through the picture galleries of Holland, and this 
summer she proposed to show them a quantity of the 
English cathedrals. These abominable pilgrimages 
were made pompously and economically: they stayed 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 189 

at odious inns, where she haggled and bargained with 
the proprietors, but on the other hand she informed 
the petrified vergers and custodians whom she con- 
ducted (rather than was conducted by) round the 
cathedrals or castles in their charge, that she was the 
Marchioness of Ayr, was directly descended from the 
occupants of the finest and most antique tombs, that 
the castle in question had once belonged to her family, 
or that the gem of the Holbeins represented some aunt 
of hers in bygone generations. Here pomp held 
sway, but economy came into its own again over the 
small silver coin with which she rewarded her con- 
ductor. On English lines she had a third class car- 
riage reserved for her and beguiled the tedium of 
journeys by reading aloud out of guide-books an 
account of what they had seen or what they were go- 
ing to visit. Generally they put up at “ temperance ” 
hotels, and she made a point of afternoon tea being 
included in the exiguous terms at which she insisted 
on being entertained. John aided and abetted her in 
those tours, exhibiting an ogreish appetite for all 
things Gothic and mental improvement; and her hus- 
band followed her with a white umbrella and sat down 
as much as possible. Esther’s part in them was that 
of a resigned and inattentive martyr, and she fired off 
picture postcards of the places they visited to Nadine 
and others with “ This is a foul hole,” or “ The beast- 
liest inn we have struck yet ” written on them, while 
Seymour revenged himself on the discomforts inflicted 
on him, by examining his mother as to where they had 
seen a particular rose-window or portrait by Rem- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


190 

brandt, and then by the aid of a guide-book proving 
she was wrong. Why none of them revolted and re- 
fused to go on these annual journeys, now that they 
had arrived at adult years, they none of them exactly 
knew, any more than they knew why they went, when 
summoned, to their mother’s dreadful dinner-parties, 
and it must be supposed that there was a touch of the 
inevitable about such diversions: you might grumble 
and complain, but you went. 

This year the tour was to start with the interesting 
city of Lincoln and the party assembled on the plat- 
form at King’s Cross at an early hour. The plan was 
to lunch in the train, so as to start sight-seeing imme- 
diately on arrival, and continue (with a short excur- 
sion to the hotel in order to have the tea which had 
been included in the terms) until the fading light made 
it impossible to distinguish arfcestral tombs or Norman 
arches. Lady Ayr had not seen Seymour since his 
engagement, and, as she ate rather grisly beef sand- 
wiches, she gave him her views on the step. Though 
they were all together in one compartment the con- 
versation might be considered a private one, for Lord 
Ayr was sleeping gently in one corner, John was 
absorbed in the account of the Roman remains at 
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia, as he had already an- 
nounced), and Esther with a slightly leaky stylograph 
was writing a description of their depressing journey 
to Nadine. 

“ What you are marrying on, Seymour, I don’t 
know,” she said. “ Neither your father nor I will be 
able to increase your allowance, and Nadine Walde- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


191 

nech has the appearance of being an expensive young 
woman. I hope she realizes she is marrying the son 
of a poor man, and that we go third class.” 

“ She is aware of all that,” said Seymour, wiping 
his long white finger-tips on an exceedingly fine 
cambric handkerchief, after swallowing a sandwich or 
two, “ and we are marrying really on her money.” 

“ I am not sure that I approve of that,” said his 
mother. 

“ The remedy is obvious,” remarked Seymour. 
“ You can increase my allowance. I have no objec- 
tion. Mother, would you kindly let me throw the 
rest of that sandwich out of the window? It makes 
me ill to look at it.” 

“ We are not talking about sandwiches. Why do 
you not earn some money like other younger sons ? ” 

“ I do. I earned four pounds last week, with de- 
scribing your party and other things, and there is my 
embroidery as well, which I shall work at more in- 
dustriously. I shall do embroidery in the evening 
after dinner while Nadine smokes.” 

Lady Ayr looked out of the window and pointed 
magisterially to the towers of some great church in 
the town through which the train was passing. 

“ Peterborough,” she said. “ We shall see Peter- 
borough on our way back. Peterborough, John. 
Ayr and Esther, we are passing through Peter- 
borough.” 

Esther looked out upon the mean backs of houses. 

“The sooner we pass through Peterborough the 
better,” she observed. 


i 9 2 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

John turned rapidly over the leaves of his guide- 
book. 

“ Peterborough is seventy-eight miles from Lon- 
don, and contains many buildings of interest,” he 
informed them. 

Lady Ayr returned to Seymour. 

“ I hope you will insist on her leaving off smoking 
when you are married to her,” she said. “ I cannot 
say she is the wife I should have chosen for you.” 

“ I chose her myself,” observed Seymour. 

“ Tell me more about her. Certainly the Wal- 
denechs are a very old family, there is that to be said. 
Is she serious? Does she feel her responsibilities? 
Or is she like her mother?” 

Seymour brushed a few remaining sandwich-crumbs 
off his trousers. 

“ I think Aunt Dodo is one of the most serious 
people I know,” he said. “ She is serious about 
everything. She does everything with all her might. 
Nadine is not quite so serious as that. She is rather 
flippant about things like food and dress. However, 
no doubt my influence will make her more serious. 
But as a matter of fact I can’t tell you about Nadine. 
A fortnight ago, when I proposed to her, I could 
have. I could have given you a very complete account 
of her. But I can’t any longer: I am getting blind 
about her. I only know that it is she. Not so long 
ago I told her a quantity of her faults with ruthless 
accuracy, but I could n’t now. I can’t see them any 
more : there ’s a glamor.” 

Esther looked up. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


193 

“ Oh, Seymour,” she said, “ are you talking about 
Nadine? Are you falling in love with her? How 
very awkward ! Does she know ? ” 

Seymour pointed a withering finger at his sister. 

“ Little girls should mind their own business,” he 
said. 

“ Oh, but it is my business. Nadine matters far 
more than any one else. She might easily think it not 
right to marry you if you were in love with her.” 

Lady Ayr turned a petrifying gaze from one to the 
other. 

“ She seems a very extraordinary young person,” 
she said. “ And in any case Esther has no business 
to know anything about it.” 

“ Whether she thinks it right or not, she is going 
to marry me,” said Seymour. 

Esther shook her head. 

“ You are indeed blind about Nadine,” she said, 
“ if you think she would ever do anything she thought 
wrong.” 

“You might be describing John,” said Seymour 
rather hotly. 

“ Anyhow, Nadine is not like John.” 

“ I see no resemblance,” said Lady Ayr. “ But it 
is something to know she would not do anything she 
thought wrong.” 

“ When you say it in that voice, Mother,” said 
Esther, “ you make nonsense of it.” 

“ The same words in any voice mean the same 
thing,” said Lady Ayr. 

Seymour sighed. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


194 

“ I am on Esther’s side for once,” he said. 

Esther turned to her brother. 

“ Seymour, you ought to tell Nadine you are fall- 
ing in love with her,” she said. “ I really don’t think 
she would approve. Why, you might become as bad 
as Hugh. Of course you are not so stupid as Hugh 
— ah, stupid is the wrong word — you have n’t got 
such a plain kind of intellect as Hugh — which was 
Nadine’s main objection — ” 

Seymour patted Esther’s hand with odious supe- 
riority. “ You are rather above yourself, my little 
girl,” he said, “ because just now I agreed with you. 
It has gone to your head, and makes you think your- 
self clever. Shut your eyes till we get to Lincoln, 
You will feel less giddy by degrees. And when you 
open them again, you can mind your own business, 
and mother will tell you about the Goths and Vandals 
who built the cathedral. You are a Vandal yourself : 
you will have a fellow-feeling. Mother, dear, put 
down that window. I am going to see cathedrals to 
please you, but I will not be stifled to please anybody. 
The carriage reeks of your beef sandwiches. But I 
think I have some scent in my bag.” 

“ I am quite sure you have,” said Esther scornfully. 
“ I am writing to Nadine, by the way. I shall tell 
her you are falling in love with her.” 

“ You can tell her exactly what you please,” said 
Seymour suavely. “ Ah, here is some wall-flower 
scent. It is like a May morning. Yes, tell Nadine 
what you please, but don’t bother me. What is the 
odious town we are coming to? I think it must be 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


195 


Lincoln. John, here is Lincoln, and all the people are 
ancient Romans.” 

Seymour obligingly sprayed the expensive scent 
about the carriage, even though they were so shortly 
to disembark. 

“ The river Witham,” said John, pointing to a small 
and fetid ditch. “ Remains of Roman villas — ” 

“ The inhabitants of which died of typhoid,” said 
Seymour. “ Tell Nadine we are enjoying Lincoln, 
Esther. Had father better be allowed to sleep on, or 
shall I wake him? There is a porter: call him, 
Mother — I won’t carry my bag even to save you six- 
pence. But don’t tell him we are marchionesses and 
lords and ladies, because then he will expect a shilling. 
I perceive a seedy-looking ’bus outside. That is 
probably ours. It looks as if it came from some low 
kind of inn. I wish I had brought Antoinette. And 
yet I don’t know. She would probably have given 
notice after seeing the degradation of our summer 
holiday.” 

“ Seymour, you are making yourself exceedingly 
disagreeable,” said his mother. 

“ It is intentional. You made yourself disagree- 
able to me : you began. As for you, Esther, you must 
expect to see a good deal less of Nadine after she and 
I are married. I will not have you mooning about 
the house, reminding her of all the damned — yes, I 
said damned — nonsense you and she and Berts and 
Hugh talked about the inequality of marriages where 
one person is clever and the other stupid, or where 
one loves and the other does n’t. You have roused 


196 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

me, you and mother between you, and I am here to 
tell you that I will manage my own affairs, which are 
Nadine’s also, without the smallest assistance from 
you. Put that in — in your ginger-beer, or whatever 
we have for dinner, and drink it. You thought I was 
only a sort of thing that waved its hands and collected 
jade, and talked in rather a squeaky voice, and walked 
on its toes. Well, you have found out your mistake, 
and don’t let me have to teach it you again. You 
can tell Nadine in your letter exactly what I have 
said. And don’t rouse me again: it makes me hot. 
But mind your own business instead, and remember 
that when I want either your advice or mother’s I 
will ask for it. Till then you can keep it completely 
to yourselves. You need n’t answer me : I don’t want 
to hear anything you have got to say. Let us go to 
the cathedral. I suppose it is that great cockshy on 
the top of the hill. I know it will prove to have been 
built by our forefathers. The verger will like to 
know about it. But bear in mind I don’t want to be 
told anything about Nadine.” 

Seymour had become quite red in the face with the 
violence of the feelings that prompted these straight- 
forward remarks, and before putting the spray of 
wall-flower scent back into his bag, he shut his eyes 
and squirted himself in the face in order to cool him- 
self, while Esther stared at him open-mouthed. She 
hardly knew him, for he had become exactly like a 
man, a transformation more unexpected than any- 
thing that ever happened At a pantomime, and she in- 


DODO'S DAUGHTER 


197 

stantly and correctly connected this change in him 
with what he had been saying. For the reason of the 
change was perfectly simple and sufficient: during 
those last days at Winston, after the departure of 
Hugh, he had fallen in love with Nadine, and his na- 
ture, which had really been neither that of man or 
woman, had suddenly sexed itself. He had not in 
the least cast off his tastes and habits; to spray him- 
self and a stuffy railway-carriage with wall-flower 
scent was still perfectly natural to him, and no doubt, 
unless Nadine objected very much, he would continue 
to take Antoinette about with him as his maid, but he 
had declared himself a man, and found, even as his 
sister found, that the change in him was as immense 
as it was unexpected. He thought with more than 
usual scorn of Nadine's friends, such as Esther and 
Berts, who all played about together like healthy, but 
mentally anemic, children, for he, the most anemic of 
them all, had suddenly had live blood, as it were, 
squirted into him. Indeed the only member of the 
clan whom he thought of with toleration was Hugh, 
with whom he felt a bond of brotherhood, for Hugh, 
like himself, loved Nadine like a man. Already also 
he felt sorry for him, recognizing in him a member 
of his own sex. Hitherto he had disliked his own 
sex, because they were men, now he found himself 
detesting people like Berts, because they were not. 
For men, so he had begun to perceive, are essentially 
those who are aware of the fact of women; the rest 
of them, to which he had himself till so lately be- 
longed, he now classified as more or less intellectual 


198 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

amoebae. And the corresponding members of the 
other sex were just as bad: Esther had rto sense of sex, 
nor perhaps, and here he paused, had Nadine. 

That, it is true, gave him long pause. He knew 
quite well that Nadine had been no more in love with 
him, when they had got engaged, than he had been 
with her. They had both been, and she so he must 
suppose was still, quite undeveloped as regards those 
instincts. Hugh with all his devotion ,and developed 
manliness awoke no corresponding flame in her, and 
Seymour was quite clear-sighted enough to see that 
there was no sign of his having succeeded where Hugh 
had failed. She belonged, as Dodo had remarked, to 
that essentially modern type of girl, which, unless she 
marries while quite young, will probably be spinster 
still at thirty. They had brains, they had a hundred 
intellectual and artistic interests, and studied mummies, 
or logic, or Greek gems, or themselves, and lived in 
flats, eagerly and happily, and smoked and substituted 
tea for dinner. They knew of nothing in their na- 
tures that gave them any imperious call ; on the other 
hand they called imperiously though unintentionally 
to others. Nadine had called like that to Hugh, and 
was dismayed at the tumult she had roused, regret- 
ting it, but not comprehending it. And now she had 
called like that to Seymour. She was like the Sleep- 
ing Beauty in the Wood, calling in her sleep. Hugh 
had answered her first and had fought his way 
through thicket and briar, but his coming had not 
awakened her. Then she had called again, and this 
time Seymour stood by her. She had given him her 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


199 

hand, but her sleep had been undisturbed. She 
smiled at him, but she smiled in her sleep. 

The seedy ’bus, of the type not yet quite extinct, 
with straw on the bottom of it, proved to be sent for 
them and they proceeded over cobbled streets, half 
deafened by the clatter of ill-fitting windows. After 
a minute or two of this Seymour firmly declined to 
continue, for he said the straw got up his trousers and 
tickled his legs, and the drums of his ears were burst- 
ing. So he got delicately out, in order to take a 
proper conveyance, and promised to meet the rest of 
them at the west door of the cathedral. Here he sat 
very comfortably for ten minutes till they arrived, and 
entering in the manner of a storming party, they 
literally stumbled over an astonished archdeacon who 
was superintending some measurement of paving 
stone immediately inside, and proved to be a cousin of 
Lady Ayr’s. This fact was not elicited without 
pomp, for the cathedral was not open to visitors at 
this hour, as he informed them, on which Lady Ayr 
said, “ I suppose there will be no difficulty in the way 
of the Marquis of Ayr — Ayr, this is an archdeacon 
— and his wife and family seeing it.” Upon which 
“an” archdeacon said, “Oh, are you Susie Ayr?” 
Explanations if cousinship — luckily satisfactory — 
followed, and hey were conducted round the cathe- 
dral by him fr e of all expense, and dined with him 
in the evening, at a quarter to eight, returning home 
at ten in order to get a grip of all they were going to 
see next day, t y a diligent perusal of the guide-books. 


200 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

They were staying at an ancient hostelry called the 
“ Goat and Compasses,” a designation the origin of 
which John very obligingly explained to them, but 
Seymour, still perhaps suffering from the straw at the 
bottom of the ’bus, thought that the “ Flea and Com- 
passes ” would be a more descriptive title. No room 
was on the level with any other room or with the 
passage outside it, and short obscure flights of steps 
designed to upset the unwary communicated between 
them. A further trap was laid down for unsuspicious 
guests in the matter of doors and windows, for the 
doors were not quite high enough to enable the per- 
son of average height to pass through them without 
hitting his forehead against the jamb, and the win- 
dows, when induced to open, descended violently 
again in the manner of a guillotine. The floors were 
as wavy as the pavement of St. Mark’s at Venice, the 
looking-glasses seemed like dusky wells, at the bottom 
of which the gazer darkly beheld his face, and the 
beds had feather mattresses on them. Altogether, it 
was quite in the right style, except that it was not a 
“temperance hotel,” for the accommodation of Lady 
Ayr on a tour of family culture, and she and John, 
after a short and decisive economical interview with 
the proprietor, took possession of the largest table in 
the public drawing-room, ejecting therefrom two 
nervous spinsters who had been looking forward to 
playing Patience on it, and spreading their maps of 
the town over it, read to each other out of guide- 
books, while Lord Ayr propped himself up dejectedly 
in a corner, where he hoped to drop asleep unper- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


201 


ceived. The troublesome interview with the proprie- 
tor had been on the subject of making a deduction 
from the agreed terms, since they had all dined out. 
He was finally routed by a short plain statement of 
the case by Lady Ayr. 

“If you can afford to take us in for so much, 
dinner included,” she said, “ you can afford to take us 
in for less without dinner. I think there is no more 
to be said on the subject. Breakfast, please, at a 
quarter past eight punctually and I shall require a 
second candle in my bedroom. I think your terms, 
which I do not say are excessive, included lights? 
Thank you!” 

Seymour had declined to take part in this guide- 
book conference, saying with truth that he felt sure 
it would all be very completely explained to him next 
day, and let himself out into the streets of the town 
which were already growing empty of passengers. 
Above the sky was lucent with many stars, and the 
moon which had risen an hour before, cleared the 
house-roofs and shone down into the street with a 
very white light, making the gas-lamps look red. 
Last night it had been full, and from the terrace at 
Winston they had all watched it rise, full-flaring, over 
the woods below the house. Then he and Nadine 
had strolled away together, and in that luminous soli- 
tude with her, he had felt himself constrained and 
tongue-tied. He had no longer at command the talk 
that usually rose so glibly to his lips, that gay, witty, 
inconsequent gabble that had truthfully represented 


202 


DODO'S DAUGHTER 

what went on in his quick discerning brain. His 
brain now was taken up with one topic only, and it 
was as hard for him to speak to her of that, as it was 
for him to speak of anything else. He knew that she 
had entered into her engagement with him, in the 
same spirit in which he had proposed to her. They 
liked each other; each found the other a stimulating 
companion; by each no doubt the attraction of the 
other’s good looks was felt. She, he* was certain, re- 
garded him now as she had regarded him then, while 
for him the whole situation had undergone so com- 
plete a change, that he felt that the very fortress of 
his identity had been stormed and garrisoned by the 
besieging host. And what was the host? That tall 
girl with the white slim hands, who, without inten- 
tion, had picked up a key and, cursorily, so it seemed, 
had unlocked his heart, so that it stood open to her. 
Honestly, he did not know that it was made to un- 
lock: he had thought of it always as some toy Swiss 
chalet, not meant to be opened. But she had opened 
it, and gone inside. 

The streets grew emptier: lights appeared behind 
blinds in upper windows, and only an occasional step 
sounded on the pavements. He had come to an open 
market place, and from where he paused and stood 
the western towers of the cathedral rose above the 
intervening roofs, and aspired whitely into the dark 
velvet of the night. Hitherto, Seymour would have 
found nothing particular to say about moonlight, in 
which he took but the very faintest interest, except 
that it tended to provoke an untimely loquaciousness 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 203 

in cats. But to-night he found his mind flooded with 
the most hackneyed and commonplace reflections. It 
reminded him of Nadine ; it was white and chaste and 
aloof like her ... he wanted her, and he was going 
to get her, and yet would she really be his in the sense 
that he was hers ? Then for a moment habit asserted 
itself, and he told himself he was being common, that 
he was dropping to the level of plain and barbarous 
Hugh. It was very mortifying, yet he could not 
keep off that level. He kept on dropping there, as he 
stared at the moonlit towers of the cathedral, unsatis- 
fied and longing. But it may be doubted whether he 
would have felt better satisfied, if he had known how 
earnestly Nadine had tried to drop, or rise, to the 
moonlit plane, or how sincerely, even with tears, she 
had deplored her inability to do so. For it was not 
he whom she had sought to join there. 


CHAPTER VIII 


D ODO was seated in her room in Jack’s house in 
town, intermittently arguing with him and Miss 
Grantham and Edith and Berts, and in intervals look- 
ing up as many of her friends as she could remember 
the names of and asking them to her dance. The 
month was November, and the dance was for to-day 
week, which was the first of December, and as far as 
she had got at present, it appeared that all her friends 
were in town and that they would all come. Nadine 
was similarly employed next door, and as they both 
asked anybody who occurred to them, the same people 
frequently got asked twice over. 

“ Which,” said Dodo, “ is an advantage, as it looks 
as if we really wanted them very much. Oh, is that 
Esther? Esther, we are having a dance on Decem- 
ber the first, and will you all come? Yes: wasn’t it 
a good idea? That is nice. Of course, delighted if 
your mother cares to come, too — ” 

“ Then I shan’t,” said Berts. 

“ Berts, shut up,” said Dodo in a penetrating whis- 
per. “Yes, darling Esther, Berts said something, 
but I don’t know what it was as they are all talk- 
ing together. Yes, a cotillion. Good-by. Look out 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


205 

Hendrick’s Stores, Grantie. But I really won’t lead 
the cotillion with Berts. It is too ridiculous: a man 
may not lead the cotillion with his grandmother: it 
comes in the prayer-book.” 

“ Three thousand and seven,” said Miss Grantham. 
“ P’d’n’t’n.” 

“ Three double-o seven, Padd,” said Dodo briskly, 
“ please, miss. I always say, 4 please, miss,’ and then 
they are much pleasanter. I used to say 4 1 ’m 
Princess Waldenech, please, miss,’ but they never be- 
lieved it, and said 4 Garn! ’ But I was: darling Jack, 
I was ! No, my days of leading the cotillion came to 
an end under William the Fourth. There is nothing 
so ridiculous as seeing an old thing — No, I ’m not 
the Warwick Hotel? Do I sound like the Warwick 
Hotel?” 

Dodo’s face suddenly assumed an expression of 
seraphic interest. 

44 It ’s too entrancing,” she whispered. 44 1 ’m 
sure it ’s a nice man, because he wants to marry me. 
He says I did n’t meet him in the Warwick Hotel this 
morning. That was forgetful. Yes? Oh, he’s 
rung off: he has jilted me. I wish I had said I was 
the Warwick Hotel : it was stupid of me. I wonder 
if you can be married by telephone with a clergyman 
taking the place of 4 please, miss.’ Where had we got 
to? Oh, yes, Hendrick’s: three double-o seven, you 
idiot. I mean, please, miss. What? Thank you, 
miss. No, Nadine and Berts shall lead it.” 

44 1 would sooner lead with Lady Ayr,” said Berts. 
44 Nadine always forgets everything — ” 


206 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Oh, Hendrick’s, is it?” said Dodo. “Yes, Lady 
Chesterford. I am really, and I want a band for the 
evening of December the first. No, not a waistband. 
Music. Yes, send somebody round.” Dodo put 
down the ear-piece. 

“ Let us strive not to do several things together,” 
she said. “ For the moment we will concentrate on 
the cotillion. Jack dear, why did you suggest I 
should lead ? It has led to so much talking, of which 
I have had to do the largest part.” 

“ I want you to,” he said. “ I ’ll take you to Egypt 
in the spring, if you will. I won’t otherwise.” 

“ Darling, you are too unfair for words. You 
want to make an ass of me. You want everybody to 
say ‘Look at that silly old grandmama.’ I probably 
shall be a grandmama quite soon, if Nadine is going 
to marry Seymour in January — ‘Silly old grand- 
mama,’ they will say, ‘ capering about like a two- 
year-old.’ Because I shall caper: if I lead, I shan’t 
be able to resist kicking up.” 

Jack came across the room and sat on the table by 
her. 

“ Don’t you want to, Dodo ? ” he asked quietly. 

“ Yes, darling, I should love to. I only wanted 
pressing. Oh, my beloved Berts, what larks ! We ’ll 
have hoops, and snowballs, and looking-glass, and 
wooly-bear — don’t you know wooly-bear ? — and 
paper-bags and obstacles, and balance. And then 
the very next day I shall settle down, and behave as 
befits my years and riches and honor. I am old and 
Jack is rich, and has endowed me with all his worldly 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


207 

goods, and we are both strictly honorable. But I feel 
it ’s a hazardous experiment. If I hear somebody 
saying, as no doubt I shall, ‘ Surely, Lady Chester- 
f ord is a little old ? * I shall collapse in the middle 
of the floor, and burst into several tears. And then 
I shall wipe my eyes, both of them if both have cried, 
and if not, one, and say, ‘Beloved Berts, come on! 
And on we shall go.” 

“ You have n’t asked Hugh yet,” said Miss Gran- 
tham, looking at the list. 

“ Nadine did,” said Dodo. “ He said he was n’t 
certain. They argued.” 

“ They do,” said Berts. “ Aunt Dodo, may I come 
to dine this evening, and have a practice afterwards? ” 

“Yes, my dear. Are you going? Till this even- 
ing then.” 

Dodo turned to Jack, and spoke low. 

“ Oh, Jack,” she said, “ Waldenech ’s in town. 
Nadine saw him yesterday.” 

“ Glad I did n’t,” said Jack. 

“ I ’m sure you are, darling. But here we all are, 
you know. You can’t put him out like a candle. 
About the dance, I mean. I think I had better ask 
him. He won’t come, if I ask him.” 

“ He won’t come anyhow, my dear,” said Jack. 

“ You can’t tell. I know him better than you. 
He ’s nasty, you know, poor dear. If I did n’t ask 
him, he might come. He might think he ought to 
have been asked, and so come instead. Whereas if he 
was asked, he would probably think it merely insult- 
ing of me, and so stop at home.” 


208 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Don’t whisper to each other,” said Edith loudly. 
“ I can’t bear a husband and wife whispering to each 
other. It looks as if they had n’t got over the honey- 
moon. Dodo, I have n’t had a single word with you 
yet — ” 

“ Darling Edith, you have n’t. If you only would 
go to the other end of the telephone, I would talk to 
you for hours, simply to thwart fbe ‘ please, miss ’ 
who asks if we haven’t done yet. The only com- 
fortable conversation is conducted on the telephone. 
Then you say ‘hush’ to everybody else in the room. 
Indeed, it is n’t usually necessary to say ‘ hush.’ 
Anybody with a proper interest in the affairs of other 
people always listens to what you say, trying to 
reconstruct what the inaudible voice says. Jack 
was babbling down the telephone the other day, 
when I particularly wanted to talk, but when he said 
‘ Never let him shave her again,’ how could I inter- 
rupt? ” 

“ Did he shave her again? ” asked Miss Grantham. 
“Who was she?” 

“ You should n’t have said that,” said Dodo, “ be- 
cause now I have to explain. It was the poodle, who 
had been shaved wrong, and she had puppies next 
day, and they probably all had hair in the unfashion- 
able places. Please talk to each other, and not about 
poodles. Jack and I have a little serious conversation 
to get through.” 

“ I will speak,” said Edith, “ because it matters to 
me. We ’ve let our house, Dodo, at least Bertie let 
it, and has gone to Bath, because he is rheumatic; 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


209 

Berts can stay at the Bath Club, because he is n’t, but 
I want to stay with you.” 

“ The house is becoming like Basle railway-sta- 
tion,” remarked Jack. 

“ Yes, dear. Every proper house in town is,” said 
Dodo. “ A house in London is n’t a house, it is a 
junction. People dine and lunch and sleep if they 
have time. I have n’t. Yes, Edith, do come. Jack 
wants you, too, only he doesn’t say so, because he 
is naturally reticent.” 

Edith instantly got up. 

“ Then may I have some lunch at once ? ” she said. 
“ Cold beef will do. But I have a rehearsal at half- 
past one.” 

The telephone bell rang, and Dodo took up the ear- 
piece. 

“ No, Lady Chesterford is out,” she said. “ But 
who is it? It ’s Waldenech, Jack,” she said in a low 
voice. “ No, she hasn’t come in yet. What? No: 
she isn’t expected at all. She is quite unexpected.” 

She replaced the instrument. 

“ I recognized his voice,” she said, “ and I ought n’t 
to have said I was unexpected, because perhaps he 
will guess. But he sounded a bit thick, don’t they 
say? Yes, dear Edith, have some cold beef, because 
it is much nicer than anything else. I shall come and 
have lunch in one minute, too, as I did n’t have any 
breakfast. Take Grantie away with you, and I will 
join you.” 

“ I won’t have cold beef, whatever happens,” said 
Grantie. 


210 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Dodo turned round, facing Jack, as soon as the 
others had left the room, and laid her hand on his 
knee. 

“ Jack, I feel sure I am right,” she said. “ I don’t 
want Waldenech here any more than you do. But 
after all, he is Nadine’s father. I wish Madge or 
Belle or somebody who writes about society would lay 
down for us the proper behavior for re-married wives 
towards their divorced husbands.” 

“ I can tell you the proper behavior of divorced 
husbands towards re-married wives,” said Jack. 

“ Yes, darling, but you must remember that Wal- 
denech has nothing to do with proper behavior. He 
always behaved most improperly. If he had n’t, I 
should n’t be your wife now. I think that must be 
an instance of all things working together for good, 
as St. Peter says.” 

“ Paul,” remarked Jack. 

“ Very likely, though Peter might be supposed to 
know most about wives. Jack, dear, let us settle this 
at once, because I am infernally hungry, and the 
thought of Edith’s eating cold beef makes me feel 
homesick. I think I had much better ask Waldenech 
to our dance. There he is : I ’ve known him pretty 
well, and it ’s just because he is nothing more than an 
acquaintance now, that I wish to ask him. To ask 
him will show the — the gulf between us.” 

Jack shook his head. 

“ I prefer to show the gulf by not asking him,” he 
said. 

Dodo frowned, and tapped the skirt of her riding- 


21 1 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 

habit with her whip. She was rather tired and very 
hungry, for she had been playing bridge till two 
o’clock the night before, and had got up at eight to 
go out riding, and, meaning to have breakfast after- 
wards, had found herself plunged in the arrangements 
for her ball, which had lasted without intermission 
till this moment. But she felt unwilling to give this 
point up, unless Jack absolutely put his foot down 
with regard to it. 

“ I think I am right/’ she said. “ He is rather a 
devil.” 

“ All the more reason for not asking him.” 

“Do you mean that you forbid me?” she asked. 

He thought for a moment. 

“ Yes, I forbid you,” he said. 

Dodo got up at once, flicked him in the face with 
the end of her riding-whip, and before he had really 
time to blink, kissed him on exactly the same spot, 
which happened to be the end of his nose. 

“ That is finished, then,” she said in the most good- 
humored voice. " And now I have both the whip and 
the whip-hand. If anything goes wrong, darling, I 
shall say ‘ I told you so/ till you wish you had never 
been born.” 

He caught her whip and her hands in his. 

“ You could n’t make me wish that,” he said. 

Her whole face melted into a sunlight of adorable 
smiles. 

“Oh, Jack, do you really mean that?” she asked. 
“ And because of me ? ” 

He pulled her close to him. 


212 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ I suppose I should mean in spite of you,” he 
said. “ Go and eat with that ogre Edith. And then, 
darling, will you rest a little? You look rather 
tired.” 

She raised her eyes to his. 

“ But I am tired,” she said. “ It would be a dis- 
grace not to be tired every day.' It would show you 
had n’t made the most of it.” 

“ I don’t like you to be tired,” he said, “ especially 
since it is n’t lunch-time yet. You have n’t got much 
more to do, to-day, I hope.” 

“ But lots, and all so jolly. Oh, my dear, the world 
is as full as the sea at high-tide. It would be 
wretched not to fling oneself into it. But it is only 
high-tide till after my dance. Then we go down to 
Meering, and snore, and sleep like pigs and eat like 
kittens, and sprout like mushrooms.” 

“You’ve asked a houseful there,” objected Jack. 

“ Yes, darling, but it ’s only people like you and 
Esther and Hugh. I shan’t bother about you.” 

“Is Hugh coming there?” he askecU 

“Yes. He goes abroad directly afterwards, as he 
has exchanged from the Foreign Office into the Em- 
bassy at Rome for six months. He is wise, I think. 
He does n’t want to be here when Nadine is married, 
nor for some time afterwards. But he wants to see 
her again first.” 

“ The rest is wise,” said Jack, “ but that is abom- 
inably foolish.” 

“ Perhaps it is, but how one hates a young man to 
be altogether wise. A wise young man is quite in- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


213 

tolerable. In fact wisdom generally is intolerable. 
It would be intolerable of me to lie down after lunch, 
and not eat and drink what I chose. You would be 
intolerable if you did n’t make yourself so utterly 
foolish about me. Oh, Jack, let us die if necessary, 
but don’t let us be wise before that.” 

Jack had nothing to say to this remarkable aspira- 
tion, and Dodo went out to join Edith. But he sat 
still on the edge of the table after she had gone, not 
altogether at ease. During the last month or so, he 
had several times experienced impulses not to be ac- 
counted for rationally, which had made him ask her 
if she felt quite well, and now that he collected these 
occasions in his mind, he could not recollect any very 
reassuring response on her part. She had told him 
not to fuss, she had stood before him, radiant, bril- 
liant and said, “ Do I look particularly unwell ? Why 
do you want to spoil the loveliest time of all my life? ” 
But she did not seem to have given him any direct 
answer at all, and the cumulative effect of those pos- 
sible evasions troubled him a little. But he soon told 
himself that such a cloud was born of his imagination 
only, for it was impossible to conceive, when he let 
himself contemplate the memory of those days since 
last July, that there could be anything wrong behind 
them, in so serene a beneficence of happiness were 
they wrapped. He had never dreamed that the world 
held such store, and he had not ever so faintly real- 
ized how jejune and barren his life had been before. 
He, for all his fifty years, had not yet lived one-half 
of them, for less than half himself had passed 


214 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

through the months that made them up. It was as if 
all his life he had dreamed, dreamed with God knew 
what shocks and catastrophes that Dodo was his, and 
last July only he awoke to find that his arms were in- 
deed about her, and that she herself was pressed close 
to him. And she, too, had told him that she was 
happy, not pleased merely, or excited or thrilled, but 
happy. Incredible as it seemed to his modest soul, 
her happiness was one with his. It seemed there was 
nothing left to ask God for ; the only possible attitude 
was to stand up and praise and thank Him. Jack did 
that every day and night that passed. 

Dodo, when she left her husband had not gone 
straight to the dining-room to join Edith and the cold 
beef. For half an hour before, she had been con- 
scious of a queer and rather sickening pain, that had 
made it an effort to continue enthusiastically tele- 
phoning and arguing. She had had no real doubt in 
her own mind that it was the result of a rather stren- 
uous morning without any food except the slice of 
bread and butter that had accompanied her early bed- 
room tea, but she thought that she would go upstairs 
and have her hot bath, which was sure to make her 
quite comfortable, before she ate. Her bathroom 
which opened out of her bedroom was prepared for 
her, the water steaming and smelling of the delicious 
verbena-salts which her maid had put into it, and 
convinced that she would feel perfectly fit again after 
it, she quickly undressed, and went in with bare feet 
to enjoy herself. But even as she took off her dress- 
ing-gown, she had a start of pain that for the mo- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


215 

ment frightened her, and caused her to stand naked 
by her bath, holding on to the edge of it. Then the 
pain gradually drew away, as if pulled out of her by 
a string, and in a minute more she was quite herself 
again. But there was the memory of it left, like a 
black patch, so it seemed, even when it had quite 
ceased. However, it had gone now, and instinctively 
obeying the habit of years, she swiftly turned her 
mind to contemplate the thoroughly delightful things 
that lay in front of her, rather than the disturbing 
moment that had passed now, leaving only a black 
patch in memory. But before she slipped into the hot 
aromatic water, she wiped the sweat from her fore- 
head. She splashed the steaming water over her 
back, wriggling a little at the touch of it. 

“ O Lord, how nice!” she said to herself. “And 
it ’s hardly possible to bear it. And that reminds me 
that I utterly forgot to say my prayers this morning, 
because I was in such a hurry. Any one would have 
been on such a lovely morning, with such a lovely 
horse waiting at the door. But I am having the nicest 
time that anybody ever had, and I’ll try not to be 
quite such a disgrace as I used to be.” 

Dodo gave a loud sigh of reverent content and 
splashed again. It must be understood that she was 
saying her forgotten prayers. 

“ And Jack ’s a perfect darling,” she went on, “ and 
I am so pleased to love somebody. I never loved any- 
body before really, if you know what I mean by love, 
except perhaps Nadine. It makes the most tremen- 
dous difference, and one doesn’t think about oneself 


2l6 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


absolutely all the time, though I daresay very nearly. 
Of course I was always fond of people, but I think 
that was chiefly because they were mostly so nice to 
me. I must go to church next Sunday, which is to- 
morrow, and do all this properly, but it would have 
been much more convenient if it had been the day 
after to-morrow, as I think I promised Jack to play 
golf with him to-morrow. But I ’ll see what can be 
done. Now I ’ve dropped the soap, and is n’t every- 
thing extraordinarily mixed up! Oh, please don’t let 
me have any more pain like what I had just now, if 
it ’s all the same; but of course if I must have it, well, 
there it is. But I hope it does n’t mean anything 
nasty — ” 

Dodo dropped the soap which she had just rescued 
from the bottom of the cloudy water, and looked up 
with bright eyes. 

“ Oh, my dear, can it be that?” she said aloud. 
“ Is it possible? ” 

She recollected that she had said “ my dear ” when 
she was by way of saying her forgotten prayers, and 
so added “Amen” very loudly and piously. Then, 
quite revivified, she got out, dried herself with great 
speed and went downstairs half-dressed, with an im- 
mense fur-coat to cover deficiencies, since it was im- 
possible to wait any longer for food. She felt no 
fatigue any more, but a sudden intense eagerness at 
the thought of what possibly that pain might mean. 
It seemed almost incredible, but she found herself 
almost longing for a return of that which had fright- 
ened her before. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 217 

It was impossible for her to cram any more engage- 
ments into that day, since they already fitted into each 
other like the petals of a rose not yet fully blown, but 
she made an appointment with her doctor for next 
morning. The interview was not a long one, but 
Dodo came out from it, wreathed in smiles, immensely 
excited, and hurried home, where she went straight 
up to Jack’s room. She seized him with both hands, 
and kissed him indiscriminately. 

“ Oh, my dear, you can’t possibly guess,” she said, 
“ because it is quite too ridiculous, and only a person 
like me could possibly have done anything of the kind, 
and you ’re Zacharias, but you need n’t be dumb. 
Oh, Jack, don’t you see? Yes: it ’s that. I ’m going 
to have a baby, instead of cancer. I was prepared — 
at least not quite — for its being cancer, which I 
should n’t have enjoyed at all, but Dr. Ingram says 
it ’s the other thing. Did you ever hear anything so 
nice, and I am a very wonderful woman, are n’t I, and 
pray God it will be a boy! Oh, Jack, think how bored 
I was with the bearing of my first child. I did n’t 
deserve it, and you used to come and cheer me up. 
And then, poor little innocent, it was taken from me. 
Poor little chap: he would have been Lord Chester- 
ford now instead of you if he had lived. Won’t it 
seem funny giving birth to the same baby, so to speak, 
twice ? Ah, my dear, but it ’s not the same ! It ’s 
your child this time, Jack, and I shan’t be bored this 
time. You see I did n’t really become a woman at 
all till lately. I was merely a sprightly little devil, 
and so I suppose God is giving me another chance. 


2l8 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Jack, it simply must be a boy: I shall love to hear 
Lord Harchester cry this time.” 

Jack, though informed that he need n’t be like 
Zacharias, had been dumb because there was no vacant 
moment to speak in. The news had amazed and 
astounded him. 

“ Oh, Dodo! ” he said. “ Next to yourself, that is 
the best gift of all. But I ’m not sure I forgive you, 
for suspecting you were ill, and not telling me.” 

“ Then I shall get along quite nicely without your 
forgiveness,” said she. “ Forgiveness, indeed ! Or 
will it be twins? Would n’t that be exciting? But a 
boy anyhow : I ’ve ordered him, and he shall have one 
blue eye because he ’s yours and one brown eye be- 
cause he ’s mine, and so he ’ll be like a Welsh collie, and 
every one will say : c What a pretty little dog ; does 
he bite? ’ Jack, I hope he ’ll be rather a rip when he 
grows up and make his love to other people’s wives. 
I suppose I ought n’t to wish that, but I can’t help it. 
I like a boy with a little dash in him. He shall be 
about as tall as you, but much better looking, and oh, 
to think that I once had a boy before, and did n’t care! 
My conscience! I care now, and only yesterday I 
said I should probably soon be a grandmother, and 
now I ’ve got to leave out the grand, and be just a 
humble mother first. I ’m not humble : I ’m just as 
proud as I can stick together.” 

Suddenly this amazing flood of speech stopped, and 
Dodo grew dim-eyed, and laid her head on her hus- 
band’s shoulder. 

“ My soul doth magnify the Lord! ” she whispered. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 219 

The night of Dodo’s ball had arrived, and she was 
going to lead the cotillion, but not dance more than 
she felt to be absolutely necessary. She had told 
everybody what was going to happen to her, in strict 
privacy, which was clearly the best way of keeping it 
secret for the present. Since she was not going to 
dance more than a step or two she had put on all the 
jewels she could manage to attach to herself, including 
the girdle of great emeralds that Waldenech had 
given her. This was a magnificent adornment, far 
too nice to give back to him when she divorced him, 
and she meant to let Nadine have it, as soon as she 
could bear to part with it herself, which did not 
seem likely to happen in the immediate future. It 
consisted of large square stones set in brilliants, and 
long pear-shaped emeralds depended from it. Jack 
had once asked her how she could bear to wear it, and 
she had said : “ Darling, when emeralds are as big as 

that, they help you to bear a good deal. They make 
a perfect Spartan of me.” In other respects she 
wore what she called the “ nursery fender,” which 
was a diamond crown so high that children would 
have been safe from falling over it into the fire, the 
famous Chesterford pearls, and a sort of breast-plate 
of rubies, like the High-priest. 

“ I suppose it ’s dreadfully vulgar to wear so many 
jewels,” she said to Jack, as they took their stand at 
the top of the stairs, where Dodo intended to remain 
and receive her guests, as long as she could bear not 
being in the ball-room, “but most people who have 
got very nice stones like me I notice are vulgar. The 


220 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


truly refined people are those who have got three 
garnets and one zircon. They also say that big 
pearls, great eggs like these, are vulgar and seed- 
pearls tasteful. What a word, ‘ tasteful ’ ! And 
they talk of people’s being very simply and exquisitely 
dressed. Thank God, no one, can say I ’m simply 
dressed to-night. I ’m not : I ’m the most elaborate 
object for miles round. Jack, when my baby — Dear 
Lady Ayr, how nice to see you, and Esther and John. 
Seymour dined here, and he has been taking notes of 
our clothes for the new paper called Gowns ! ” 

As in the old days, when Dodo piped, the world 
danced, and she was as vital, as charged with that 
magnetism that spreads enjoyment round itself more 
infectiously than influenza, to-night as ever. Her 
beauty, too, was like a rose, full-blown, but without 
one petal yet fallen : and she stood there, in the glory 
of her incomparable form, jeweled and superb, a Juno 
decked for a feast among the high gods. All the 
world of her friends streamed up the stairs to be wel- 
comed by that wonderful smiling face, and many in- 
stead of going in to the ball-room waited round the 
balustrade at the stair-head watching her. By de- 
grees the tide of arriving guests slackened, and she 
turned to Jack. 

“Jack dear, the band is turning all my blood into 
champagne,” she said. “ Come and have one turn 
with me round the ball-room. Why are they all stand- 
ing about, instead of going to dance? Do they want 
to be shown how? Just once round, or perhaps twice, 
and then I will stop quiet until the cotillion.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


221 


Dodo suddenly knit her eyebrows, and looked 
sharply down into the hall below. 

“ I was right, and you were wrong,” she said. 
“ There ’s Waldenech just come in. He is not going 
to come upstairs. Wait here for me.” 

Jack stepped forward. 

“ No, that ’s for me to do,” he said. 

Dodo laid her hand on his arm. 

“ Do as I tell you, my dear,” she said. “ Wait 
here: it won’t take me a minute.” 

She went straight down into the hall: all smiles 
and gaiety had left her face, but its vitality was quite 
unimpaired. The color that was in her cheeks had 
left them, but it was not fear that had driven it away, 
but anger. He was just receiving a ticket for his hat 
and coat, and she went straight up to him. 

“ Waldenech, take your hat and coat, and go away,” 
she said. “ You must have come to the wrong house, 
you were not asked here.” 

He turned at the sound of her voice, and looked up 
at her. 

“ You incomparable creature,” he said rather 
thickly. “ You pearl!” 

“ Give the Prince his hat and coat,” said Dodo. 
“ Now go, Waldenech, before I disgrace you. I mean 
it: if you do not go quietly and at once, you shall be 
turned out.” 

His eyes wandered unsteadily from her face to her 
bosom, and down to her waist where the great girdle 
gleamed and shone. 

“ You still wear the jewels I gave you,” he said. 


222 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


Dodo instantly undid the clasp, and the girdle fell 
on to the carpet. 

“ I do not wear them any more,” she said. “ Take 
them, and go.” 

He stood there for a moment without moving. 
Then he bent down and picked them up. 

“ I ask your pardon most humbly,” he said. “ I 
am a gentleman, really. Please let me see you put 
the girdle on again, before I go; and say you forgive 
me. If your husband knows I am here, ask his par- 
don for me also.” 

Some great wave of pity came over Dodo, utterly 
quenching her anger. 

“ Oh, Waldenech, you have all my forgiveness, my 
dear,” she said. “ But take the jewels.” 

“ I ask you to give me that sign of your forgive- 
ness,” he said. 

Dodo smiled at him. 

“ Fasten it yourself, then,” she said. 

His fingers halted over this, but in a moment he 
had found and secured the clasp 

“ Good-night,” he said. 

The whole scene had lasted not more than a min- 
ute, and scarcely half-a-dozen people had seen her 
speaking to him, or knew who it was. Berts, who 
had just arrived, was one of these. Dodo turned to 
him. 

“Ah, there you are, Berts,” she said. “We are 
going to begin the cotillion exactly at twelve. Yes, 
poor dear Waldenech looked in, but he couldn’t 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


223 

stop. You might remember not to tell Nadine. And 
why wasn’t Edith here for dinner? Or isn’t she 
staying here now? Now I come to think of it I 
have n’t seen her all day.” 

“ She left you yesterday,” said Berts, “ and I ’ve 
just left her at home eating a chop and correcting 
proofs of a part-song. She was also singing. She ’s 
coming though, and says she will lead the cotillion 
with me, and she ’s sure you ought n’t to. She did n’t 
say why.” 

Dodo went up to Jack. 

“ He went like a lamb, poor dear,” she said, “ though 
I thought for a moment he was going to stop like a 
lion. It gave me a little heart-ache, Jack, for, after 
all, you know — Now we are going twice round the 
ball-room. It is n’t much of a heart-ache, it’s only 
a little one, and I expect it will soon stop.” 

This, it may be expected, was the case, for certainly 
Dodo did not behave as if she had any kind of ache, 
however little, anywhere, and, whether she danced 
or sat still, was the sun and center of the brilliant 
scene. Wall-flowers raised their heads on her ap- 
proach, and were galvanized into vitality. She or- 
dained that there should be a waltz in which nobody 
should take part who was not over forty, led off her- 
self with Lord Ayr, who had not had a wink of 
sleep all evening, and was far too much surprised to 
be capable of resistance, and convinced him that his 
dancing days were not nearly over yet. All manner 
of women who had hoped that nobody dreamed that 
they were more than thirty-five at the most followed 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


224 

her, reckless of the antiquity which they had publicly 
and irrevocably acknowledged, while Edith Arbuthnot, 
arriving in the middle of this and being quite unable 
to find a disengaged gentleman of suitable years, 
pirouetted up and down the room all by herself, until 
she clawed hold of Jack, who was taking the breath- 
less Lady Ayr to get some strictly unalcoholic refresh- 
ment. 

“ I don’t know how I came to do it,” said this lady 
to Esther, as she drank her lemonade. “ I have n’t 
danced for years. Somehow I feel as if it was Lady 
Chesterford’s fault. She has got into everybody’s 
head, it seems to me. We ’re all behaving like boys 
and girls. Fancy Ayr dancing, too ! Ayr, I saw you 
dancing.” 

Lord Ayr had come in with Dodo, at the end of 
this, unutterably briskened up. 

“ And I saw you dancing, my dear,” he said. “ And 
I hope you feel all the better for it, because I do.” 

“ We all do,” said Dodo, “ and we ’ll all do it again. 
I want everything at once, a cigarette and an ice and 
a glass of champagne and Berts. Esther, be angelic 
and fetch me Berts. Don’t tell him only I want him, 
but fetch him. Oh, Jack, is n’t it fun : yes, darling, 
we’re going to begin the cotillion immediately, and 
I ’m going to be ever so quiet. Edith, it was dear 
of you to offer to take my place, but I would n’t give 
it up to Terpsichore herself or even Salome. Jack 
dear, go and make every one go and sit down in two 
rows round the ball-room, and if anybody finds a 
rather large diamond about, it ’s probably mine. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


225 

though I never wrote my name on it. ... Was n’t 
it careless? It resembles the Koh-i-noor . Oh, Berts, 
there you are. Now don’t lose your head, but give 
all the plainest women the most favors. Then the 
pretty ones will easily see the plan, and the plain .ones 
won’t. It ’s the greatest happiness for the plainest 
number.” 

Certainly it was the most successful cotillion. As 
Dodo had arranged, all the more unattractive people 
got selected first, and all the more attractive, as Dodo 
had foreseen, saw exactly what was happening. The 
style was distinctly anti-Leap-year and in the mirror- 
figure men, instead of women, rejected the faces in 
the glass, and Lord Ayr had nothing whatever to say 
to his wife, who was instantly accepted by Jack. 
And at the end, the band preceding, they danced 
through the entire house, from cellar to garret. They 
waltzed through drawing-rooms and dining-room, and 
up the stairs, and through Dodo’s bedroom, and 
through Jack’s dressing-room, where his pajamas 
were lying on his bed (Berts put them on en passant), 
and into cul-de-sacs , and impenetrable servants’ rooms. 
And somehow it was Dodo all the time who inspired 
these childish orgies: those near her saw her, those 
behind danced wildly after her. There was no ac- 
counting for it, except in the fact that while she was 
enjoying herself so enormously, it was impossible not 
to enjoy too. Sometimes it was she shrieking, “ Yes, 
straight on,” sometimes it was her laugh-choked voice, 
saying “ No, don’t go in there,” but the fact that she 


226 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


was leading them, with her nursery fender, and her 
vitality, and her ropes of pearls, and her complete 
abandon to the spirit of dancing, with Berts for part- 
ner in Jack’s pajamas, made a magnet that it was im- 
possible not to follow. They passed through bed- 
room and attic, they went twice round the huge 
kitchen, where the chef, at Dodo’s imperious com- 
mand, laid down his culinary implements (which at 
the moment meant an ice-pail) and joined the dance 
with the first kitchen-maid. Then Dodo saw a foot- 
man standing idle, and called to him, “ Take my maid, 
William,” and William with a broad grin embraced a 
perfectly willing Frenchwoman of great attractions, 
and joined in the dance. Like the fairies in a Mid- 
summer-night’s Dream, they danced the whole hour 
through, Dodo with Berts, the chef with the kitchen- 
maid, William with Dodo’s maid, Lord Ayr with 
Nadine, Lady Ayr with somebody whom nobody 
knew by sight, who had probably come there by mis- 
take, and the first twenty couples or so finished up in 
the cellar. This, though it seemed improvised, had 
been provided for, and there were cane-chairs to rest 
in, and bottles instantly opened. The rest, following 
the band, danced their way back to the supper-room, 
where they were almost immediately joined by the 
cellar party, who were hungry as well as thirsty, and 
had nothing to eat down below. 

It was between three and four o’clock that the last 
guests took their ways. As the dance had been an- 
nounced to take place from ten till two, the cordial 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 227 

spirit of the invitation had been made good. And 
at length Dodo found herself alone with Jack. 

“ Lovely, just lovely,” she said, as he unclasped her 
diamond collar. “ Oh, Jack, what a darling world it 
is ! ” 

“ Not tired?” 

Dodo faced round, and her brilliance and freshness 
was a thing to marvel at. 

“ Look at me ! ” she said. “ Tell me if I look 
tired ! ” 

He laid the collar down on her table: her neck 
seemed to him so infinitely more beautiful than the 
gorgeous bauble with which it had been covered, a 
Beauty released from beauteous bonds. 

“ Not very. Ah, Dodo, and this is the best of all, 
when they have all gone, and you are left.” 

She put her face up to his. 

“ Why, of course,” she said. “ Do you suppose I 
was n’t looking forward to this one minute alone with 
you all the evening? I was, my dear, though if I said 
I thought of it all the time, I should be telling a silly 
lie. But it was anchored firmly in my mind all the 
time. Oh, what pretty speeches for a middle-aged 
old couple to make to each other! But the fact is 
that we get on very nicely together. Good-night, old 
boy. It ’s all too lovely. Oh, Daddy ! Fancy be- 
coming Daddy! Oh, by the way, did Hugh come? 
I did n’t see him.” 

“ Yes, he sat out a couple of dances with Nadine, 
and then went away.” 

“ Poor old chap ! ” said Dodo 


228 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


As has been mentioned, Dodo proposed to take her 
family and a great many other people as well to spend 
Christmas down at Meering, which at this inclement 
time of the year often had spells of warm and genial 
weather. Scattered through the same weeks there 
were to be several shooting-parties at Winston, but 
motor-cars, driven at a sufficiently high speed, made 
light of the difficulty of being in two places at the same 
time, and on the day after the dance she talked these 
arrangements over with Nadine. 

“ In any case,” she said, “ you can be hostess in one 
house and I in the other, so that we can be in two 
places at once quite easily, so Jack is wrong as usual. 
Jack dear, I said ‘ as usual.’ ” 

Jack got up: it was he who had made the ill-con- 
sidered remark that you can’t be in two places at once. 

“ I heard,” he said, “ and you may hear, too, that 
I will not have you going up to North Wales every 
other day, and flying down again the next. Other- 
wise you may settle what you like. Personally, I 
shall be at Winston almost all the time, as there ’s a 
heap of business to be done, and as Nadine hates 
shooting-parties — ” 

“ Oh, a story! ” said Nadine. 

“Well, my dear, you always do your best to spoil 
them by making a large quantity of young gentlemen, 
who have been asked to shoot, sit round you and talk 
to you instead.” 

“ Papa Jack, if you want to call me a flirt, pray do 
so. I will forgive you instantly. And to save you 
trouble, I will tell you what you are driving to — ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


229 


“At,” said Jack. 

“ Driving to,” repeated Nadine with considerable 
asperity, for she was aware she was wrong. “ You 
want me to be at Meering, and Mama to be at Win- 
ston. So why not say so without calling me a .flirt ? ” 

“ This daughter of Eve — ”, began Jack. 

“ My name is Dorothea,” interrupted Dodo, “ but 
they call me Dodo for short. I was never called Eve 
either before, during, or after baptism.” 

“ All I mean,” said Jack, “ is that Dorothea is not 
going to divide the week into week-ends, and be 
twenty-four hours at Meering and then twenty-four 
at Winston. The master of the house has spoken.” 

“ What a bully ! ” said Nadine. 

“ Then I shan’t give you a wedding-present,” said 
Jack. 

“ Darling Papa Jack, you are not a bully. Let ’s 
all go down to Meering in a few days, and stop there 
over Christmas. Then you and Dorothea shall go to 
Winston, and I shall be left all alone at Meering, and 
you shall have your horrid shooting-parties and she 
shall do the flirting instead of me.” 

“ Strictly speaking, will you be all alone at Meer- 
ing?” 

“ Not absolutely. I have asked a few friends.” 

“Who is going to chaperone you all, darling?” 
said Dodo. 

“ We shall chaperone each other, as usual.” 

“ That you and Dodo can settle,” said Jack. 
“ Good-by : don’t quarrel.” 

“Indeed, that will be all right, Mama,” said Na- 


230 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

dine, “ or I daresay Edith would come. Anyhow, we 
were often all together before like that in the sum- 
mer.” 

“ Yes, my dear, but it ’s a little different now,” said 
Dodo. “ You are engaged to Seymour, and Hugh is 
going to be there, too.” 

“ Yes, but that makes it all the simpler.” 

Dodo got up. 

“ I wonder if you realize that Seymour is in love 
with you,” she said. “ In love with you like Hugh 
is, I mean.” 

“ Perfectly, and he is charming about it,” said Na- 
dine. “ And I practise every morning being in love 
with him like that. I think I am getting on very well. 
I dreamed about him last night. I thought he gave 
me a great box of jade and when I opened it, there 
was a rabbit inside — ” 

“ That shows great progress,” said Dodo. 

“ Mama, I think you are laughing at me. But 
what would you have? I am very fond of him, he 
is handsome and clever and charming. I expected 
to find it tiresome when he told me he was in love 
like that, but it is not the least so.” 

Memories of the man she had married when she 
was even younger than Nadine, came unbidden into 
Dodo’s mind: she remembered her first husband’s 
blind, dog-like devotion and her own ennui when he 
strove to express it, to communicate it to her. 

“ Nadine,” she said, “ treat it reverently, my dear. 
There is nothing in the world that a man can give a 
woman that is to be compared to that. It is better 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


231 

than a rabbit in a jade-box. When I was even 
younger than you, Papa Jack’s cousin gave it me, and 
— and I did n’t reverence it. Don’t repeat my irrep- 
arable error.” 

“Weren’t you nice to him?” asked Nadine. 

“ I was a brute beast to him, my darling.” 

“ Oh, I shan’t be a brute beast to Seymour,” said 
Nadine. “ Besides, I don’t suppose you were. You 
did n’t know : was n’t that all ? ” , 

Dodo wiped the mist from her eyes. 

“ No, that was n’t nearly all. But be tender with 
it, and pray, oh, my dear, pray, that you may catch 
that — that ‘noble fever.’ Who calls it that? It is 
so true. And Hughie ? I never saw him last night.” 

Nadine made a little gesture of despair. 

“ Ah, dear Hughie,” she said. “ That is not very 
happy. That is so largely why I wanted to marry 
Seymour quickly, in January instead of later, so that 
it may be done, and Hughie will not fret any more. 
I hate seeing him suffer, and I can’t marry him. It 
would not be fair : it would be cheating him, as I told 
him before.” 

“ But you are not cheating Seymour? ” asked Dodo. 

“ Not in the same way. He is not simple, like 
Hugh. Hugh has only one thought: Seymour has 
plenty of others. He has such a mind: it is subtle 
and swift like a woman’s. Hughie has the mind of 
a great retriever dog, and the eyes of one. There is 
all the difference in the world between them. Sey- 
mour knows what he is in for, and still wants it. 
Hugh thinks he knows, but he does n’t. I understand 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


232 

Hugh so well : I know I am right. And I would have 
given anything to be able to be in love with him. It 
was a pity ! ” 

There was something here that Dodo had not 
known and there was a dangerous sound about it. 

“ Do you mean you wish you were in love with 
him ? ” she asked. 

" Oh, yes, Mama, but I ’m not. I used to practice 
trying to be for months and months, just as I am 
practising for Seymour now. La, la, what a world ! ” 

Nadine paused a moment. 

“ Of course I ’ve quite stopped practising being in 
love with Hugh since I was engaged to Seymour,” 
she said with an air of the most candid virtue. “ That 
would be cheating.” 

Nadine got up looking like a tall white lily. 

“ Seymour is so good for me,” she said. “ He 
does n’t think much of my brain, you know, and I 
used to think a good deal of it. He does n’t say I ’m 
stupid, but he has n’t got the smallest respect for my 
mind. I am not sure whether he is right, but I expect 
seeing so much of Hugh made me think I was clever. 
I wonder if being in love makes people stupid. He 
himself seems to me to be not quite so subtle as he 
was, and perhaps it ’s my fault. What do you think, 
Mama?” 


CHAPTER IX 


I T was the morning after Christmas Day, and Dodo 
and Jack had just driven off from Meering on 
their way to Winston, where a shooting-party was to 
assemble that day, leaving behind them a party that 
regretted their departure, but did not mean to repine. 
Edith Arbuthnot had promised to arrive two days 
before, to take over from Dodo the duty of chaperone, 
but she had not yet come, nor had anything whatever 
been heard of her. 

“ Which shows,” said Berts lucidly, “ that nothing 
unpleasant can have happened to mother, or we should 
have heard.” 

Until she came Nadine had very kindly consented 
to act as regent, and in that capacity she appeared in 
the hall a little while after Dodo had gone, with a 
large red contadina umbrella, a book or two, and an 
expressed determination to sit out on the hillside till 
lunch-time. 

“ It is boxing-day, I know,” she said, “ but it is too 
warm to box, even if I knew how. The English cli- 
mate has gone quite mad, and I have told my maid 
to put my fur coat in a box with those little white 
balls until May. Now I suppose you are all going to 
play the foolish game with those other little white 
balls till lunch.” 


233 


234 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Seymour was seated in the window-sill, stitching 
busily at a piece of embroidery which Antoinette had 
started for him. 

“ I am going to do nothing of the sort,” he said. 
“ It is much too fine a day to do anything so limited 
as to play golf. Besides there is no one here fit to 
play with. Nadine, will you be very kind and ring 
for my maid? I am getting in a muddle.” 

Berts, who was sitting near him, got up, looking 
rather ill. Also he resented being told he was not 
fit to play with. 

“ May I have my perambulator, please, Nadine?” 
he asked. 

Seymour grinned. 

“ Berts, you are easier to get a rise out of than any 
one I ever saw,” he remarked. “ It is hardly worth 
while fishing for you, for you are always on the feed. 
And if you attempt to rag, I shall prick you with my 
needle.” 

Nadine lingered a little after the others had gone, 
and as soon as they were alone Seymour put down 
his embroidery. 

“ May I come and sit on the hillside with you ? ” 
he asked. “ Or is the — the box-seat already en- 
gaged?” 

“ Hugh suggested it,” she said. “ I was going out 
with him.” 

Seymour picked up his work again. 

“ It seems to me I am behaving rather nicely,” he 
said. “ At the same time I ’m not sure that I am 
not behaving rather anemically. I haven’t seen you 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


235 

much since I came down here. And after all I did n’t 
come down here to see Esther.” 

Nadine frowned, and laid her hand on his arm. But 
she did not do it quite instinctively. It was clear she 
thought it would be appropriate. Certainly that was 
quite clear to Seymour. 

“ Take that hand away,” he said. “ You only put 
it there because it was suitable. You didn’t want to 
touch me.” 

Nadine removed her hand, as if his coat-sleeve was 
red-hot. 

“ You are rather a brute,” she said. 

“ No, I am not, unless it is brutal to tell you what 
you know already. I repeat that I am behaving rather 
nicely.” 

It was owing to him to do him justice. 

“ I know you are,” she said, " you are behaving 
very nicely indeed. But it is only for a short time, 
Seymour. I don’t mean that you won’t always behave 
nicely, but that there are only a limited number of 
days on which this particular mode of niceness will be 
required of you, or be even possible. Hugh is going 
away next week; after that you and I will be Darby 
and Joan before he sees me again. You are all be- 
having nicely: he is too. He just wanted one week 
more of the old days, when we did n’t think, but only 
babbled and chattered. I can’t say that he is reviving 
them with very conspicuous success : he does n’t babble 
much, and I am sure he thinks furiously all the time. 
But he wanted the opportunity : it was n’t much to 
give him.” 


236 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Especially since I pay,” said Seymour quickly. 

He saw the blood leap to Nadine’s face. 

“ I ’m sorry,” he said. “ I ought n’t to have said 
that, though it is quite true. But I pay gladly : you 
must believe that also. And I ’m glad Hugh is be- 
having nicely, that he does n’t indulge in — in embar- 
rassing reflections. Also, when does he go away ? ” 

“ Tuesday, I think.” 

“ Morning? ” asked Seymour hopefully. 

Nadine laughed : he had done that cleverly, making 
a parody and a farce out of that which a moment be- 
fore had been quite serious. 

“ You deserve it should be,” she said. 

“ Then it is sure to be in the afternoon. Now I ’ve 
finished being spit-fire — I want to ask you something. 
You have n’t been up to your usual form of futile and 
clannish conversation. You have been rather plain- 
tive and windy — ” 

“Windy?” asked Nadine. 

“Yes, full of sighs, and I should say it was Shakes- 
peare. Are you worrying about anything?” 

She looked up at him with complete candor. 

“ Why, of course, about Hughie,” she said. “ How 
should I not ? ” 

“ I don’t care two straws about that,” said Seymour, 
“ as long as your worrying is not connected with me. 
I mean I am sorry you worry, but I don’t care. Of 
course you worry about Hugh. I understand that, 
because I understand what Hugh feels, and one 
does n’t like one’s friends feeling like that. But it ’s 
not about — about you and me ? ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


237 


Nadine shook her head and Seymour got up. 

“ Well, let us all be less plaintive,” he said. “ I 
have been rather plaintive too. I think I shall go 
and take on that great foolish Berts at golf. He will 
be plaintive afterwards, but nobody minds what Berts 
is.” 


Whatever plaintiveness there was about, was cer- 
tainly not shared by the weather, which, if it was mad, 
as Nadine had suggested, was possessed by a very 
genial kind of mania. An octave of spring-like days, 
with serene suns, and calm seas, and light breezes 
from the southwest had decreed an oasis in midwinter, 
warm halcyon days made even in December the 
snowdrops and aconites to blossom humbly and 
bravely, and set the birds to busy themselves with 
sticks and straws as if nesting-time was already here. 
New grass already sprouted green among the grayness 
of the older growths, and it seemed almost cynical to 
doubt that spring was not verily here. Indeed where 
Hugh and Nadine sat this morning, it was May not 
March that seemed to have invaded and conquered 
December; there lay upon the hillside a vernal fra- 
grance that set a stray bee or two buzzing round the 
honied sweetness of the gorse with which the time 
of blossoming is never quite over, and to-day all the 
winds were still, and no breeze stirred in the bare 
slender birches, or set the spring-like stalks of the 
heather quivering. Only, very high up in the un- 
plumbed blue of the zenith thin fleecy clouds lay 
stretched in streamers and combed feathers of white, 


238 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

showing that far above them rivers of air swept head- 
long and swift. 

Nadine had a favorite nook on this steep hillside 
below the house, reached by a path that stretched out 
to the south of the bay. It was a little hollow, russet- 
colored now with the bracken of the autumn, and 
carpeted elsewhere by the short-napped velvet of the 
turf. Just in front, the cliff plunged sheer „down 
to the beach, where they had so often bathed in the 
summer, and where the reef of tumbled sandstone 
rocks stretched out into the waveless sea, like brown 
amphibious monsters that were fish at high tide and 
grazing beasts at the ebb. Down there below, a school 
of gulls hovered and fished with wheelings of white 
wings, but not a ripple lapped the edges of the rocks. 
Only the sea breathed softly as in sleep, stirring the 
fringes of brown weed that had gathered there, but 
no thinnest line of white showed breaking water. 
Along the sandy foreshore of the bay there was the 
same stillness: heaven and earth and ocean lay as if 
under an enchantment. The sand dunes opposite, 
and the hills beyond, lay reflected in the sea, as if in 
the tranquillity of some land-locked lake. There was 
a spell, a hush over the world, to be broken by God- 
knew-what gentle awakening of activity, or catastro- 
phic disturbance. 

The two had walked to this withdrawn hollow of 
the hill almost in silence. He had offered to carry 
her books for her, but she had said that they were of 
no weight, and after pause he had announced a frag- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


239 

ment of current hews to which she had no comment to 
add, but had noticed the windless, unnatural calm of 
the day. Something in this unusual stillness of 
weather had set her nerves a-quiver, and perhaps the 
position she was in, bound as she was to Seymour, 
not struggling against it, but quite accepting it, made 
ordinary intercourse difficult. For she had it all her 
own way, Hugh was behaving with exemplary discre- 
tion, Seymour was behaving with admirable tolerance, 
and just because they both made her own part so easy 
for her, she, womanlike, found the smoothed-out per- 
formance of it to be difficult. Had she instructed each 
of them how to behave, her instructions were carried 
out to the letter’s foot: they were impeccable as lover 
and rejected lover, and therefore she wanted some- 
thing different. The situation was completely of her 
own making: her actors played their parts exactly as 
she would have them play, and yet there was some- 
thing wanting. They were too well-drilled, too word- 
perfect, too certain to say all she had designed for 
them from the right spot, and in the right voice. 
True, for a moment just now Seymour had shown 
signs of individualism when he called attention to the 
fact that he was behaving very nicely, and that he 
would be glad when the scene was over, but Hugh 
had shown none whatever, except for the fact that he 
had been asked to be allowed a few days like the old 
days agone before he left England. He had assured 
her in the summer that he would never seek to get back 
into the atmosphere of unthinking intimacy again, but, 
poor fellow, when there were to be so few days left 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


240 

him, before the situation was sealed and made irrevo- 
cable, his heart had cried out against the edict of his 
will and, foolish though it might be, he had asked for 
this week of Meering days. But from his point of 
view, no less than from hers, they had been but a 
parody of what he had hoped for, they had been frozen 
and congealed by the reserve and restraint that he 
dared not break. Below that surface-ice, he knew 
how swiftly ran the torrent in his soul, but the ice 
quite stretched from shore to shore. It was this which 
disappointed Nadine: for she equally with Hugh had 
expected that he could realize the impossible, and that 
he, loving her as he did and knowing that she was so 
soon to give herself to another man, could cast off the 
knowledge of that, and resume for a space the un- 
shackled intimacy of old. The Ethiopian and the 
leopard would have found their appropriate feats far 
easier, for it was Hugh’s bones and blood he had to 
change, not mere skin and hair, and the very strength 
of the bond that bound him to her made the insuper- 
ableness of the barrier. He felt every moment the 
utter failure of his attempt, while she, who thought 
she understood him so well, had no notion how radical 
the failure was. Not loving, she could not under- 
stand. He knew that now, and thought bitterly of 
the little fireworks of words she had once lit for him 
on that same text, believing that by the light of those 
quick little squibs, she could read his heart. 

So, when they were settled in their nook, once again 
she tried to recapture the old ease. She pointed down- 
wards over the edge of the cliff. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


241 

“ Oh, Hughie, what a morning,” she said. “ Quiet 
sea and gulls, and bees and gorse. What a summer 
in December, a truce with winter, is n’t it ? I ’ve 
brought a handful of nice books. Shall I read?” 

“ Oh, soon/’ said he. “ But your summer in De- 
cember is n’t going to last long. There is a wind 
coming, and a big one. Look at the mare’s-tails of 
clouds up above. Can’t you smell the wind coming? 
I always can. And the barometer has dropped nearly 
an inch since last night.” 

He put back his head and sniffed, moving his 
nostrils rather like a horse. 

“ Oh, how fascinating,” said Nadine. “ If I do 
that shall I smell the wind ? ” 

It made her sneeze instead. 

“ I don’t think much of that,” she said. “ I expect 
you looked at the barometer before you smelt the 
wind. Besides, how is it possible to smell the wind 
before there is any wind to smell ? And when it comes 
you feel it instead.” 

“ It will be a big storm,” said Hugh. 

Even as he spoke some current of air stirred the 
surface of the sea below them, shattering the reflec- 
tions. It was as if some great angel of the air had 
breathed on the polished mirror of the water, dimming 
it. Next moment the breath cleared away again, and 
the surface was as bright and unwavering as before. 
But some half-dozen of the gulls that had been hover- 
ing and chiding there, rose into the higher air, leaving 
their feeding-ground, and after circling round once or 
twice, glided away over the sand dunes inland. Al- 


242 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


most immediately afterwards, another relay followed, 
and another, till the bay that had been so populous 
with birds was quite deserted. They did not pause in 
their flight, but went straight inland, in decreasing 
specks of white till they vanished altogether. 

“ The gulls seem to think so, too,” said Hugh. 

“ Then they are perfectly wrong,” said Nadine. 
“ The instincts Nature implants in animals are almost 
invariably incorrect. For instance, the Siberian tigers 
at the Zoo. For several years they never grew winter 
coats, and all the naturalists went down on their knees 
and said: ‘O wonderful Mother Nature! their in- 
stincts tell them this is a milder climate than Siberia.’ 
But this winter, the mildest ever known, the poor 
things have grown the thickest winter coats ever seen. 
So all the naturalists had to get up again, and dust 
their trousers where they had knelt down.” 

“ Put your money on the gulls and me,” said Hugh. 
“ Look there again, far away along the sands.” 

To Nadine, the most attractive feature about Hugh 
was his eyes. They had a far-away look in them that 
had nothing whatever spiritual or sentimental in it, 
but was simply due to the fact that he had extraordi- 
narily long sight. She obediently screwed up her eyes 
and followed his direction, but saw nothing whatever 
of import. 

“ It ’s getting nearer : you ’ll see it soon,” said Hugh. 

Soon she saw. A whirlwind of sand was advanc- 
ing towards them along the beach below, revolving 
giddily. As it came nearer they could see the loose 
pieces of seaweed and jetsam being caught up into it. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


243 

It came forward in a straight line, perhaps as fast 
as a man might run, getting taller as it approached and 
gyrating more violently. Then in its advance it came 
into collision with the wall of cliff on which they sat, 
and was shattered. They could hear, like the sound 
of rain, the sand and rubbish of which it was com- 
posed falling upon the rocks. 

“Oh, but did you invent that, Hughie?” she said. 
“ It was quite a pretty trick. Was it a sign to this 
faithless generation, which is me, that you could smell 
the wind? Or did the gulls do it? Prophesy to me 
again ! ” 

He lay back on the dry grass. 

“ Trouble coming, trouble coming,” he said. 

“Just the storm?” she asked. “Or is this more 
prophecy ? ” 

“ Oh, just the storm,” he said. “ I always feel de- 
pressed and irritated before a storm.” 

“ Are you depressed and irritated ? ” she asked. 
“ Sorry. I thought it was such a nice, calm morn- 
ing.” 

Hugh took up a book at random, which proved to 
be Swinburne’s “ Poems and Ballads.” At random 
he opened it, and saw the words : 

“ And though she saw all heaven in flower above, 
She would not love.” 

“Oh, do read,” said Nadine. “Anything: just 
where you opened it.” 

Hugh sat up, a bitterness welling in his throat. He 
read : 


244 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


“ And though she saw all heaven in flower above. 
She would not love.” 

Nadine flushed slightly, and was annoyed with her- 
self for flushing. She could not help knowing what 
must be in his mind, and tried to make a diversion. 

“ I don’t think she was to be blamed,” she said. 
“ A quantity of flowers stuck all over the sky would 
look very odd, and I don’t think would kindle any- 
body’s emotions. That sounds rather a foolish poem. 
Read something else.” 

Hugh shut the book. 

“ 4 Though all we fell on sleep, she would not weep,’ 
is the end of another stanza,” he said. 

Nadine looked at him for a long moment, her lips 
parted as if to speak, but they only quivered; no words 
came. There was no doubt whatever as to what Hugh 
meant, but still, with love unawakened, and with her 
tremendous egotism rampant, she saw no further than 
he was behaving very badly to her. He had come 
down here to renew the freedom and intimacy of old 
days: till to-day he had been silent, stupid, but when 
he spoke like this, silence and stupidity were better. 
She was sorry for him, very sorry, but the quiver of 
her lips half at least consisted of self-pity that he 
made her suffer too. 

“ You mean me,” she said, speaking at length, and 
speaking very rapidly. “It is odious of you. You 
know quite well I am sorry: I have told you so. I 
cried: I remember I cried when you made that visit 
to Winston, and the cow looked at me. I daresay you 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


245 

are suffering damned torments, but you are being un- 
fair. Though I don’t love you — like that, I wish I 
did. Do you think I make you suffer for my own 
amusement ? Is it fun to see my best friend like that ? 
Is it my fault? You have chosen to love this heart- 
less person, me. If I had no liver, or no lungs, instead 
of no heart, you would be sorry for me. Instead you 
reproach me. Oh, not in words, but you meant me, 
when you said that. Where is the book out of which 
you read? There, I do that to it: I send it into the 
sea, and when the gulls come back they will peck it, 
or the sea will drown it first, and the wind which you 
smell will blow it to America. You don’t understand : 
you are more stupid than the gulls.” 

She made one swift motion with her arm, and 
“ Poems and Ballads ” flopped in the sea as the book 
dived clear of the cliff into the high-water sea below. 

More imminent than the storm which Hugh had 
prophesied was the storm in their souls. He, with 
his love baffled, raged at the indifference with which 
she had given herself to another, she, distrusting for 
the first time, the sense and wisdom of her gift, raged 
at him for his rebellion against her choice. 

“ Don’t speak,” she said, “ for I will tell you more 
things first. You are jealous of Seymour — ” 

Hugh threw back his head and laughed. 

“ Jealous of Seymour? ” he cried. “ Do you really 
think I would marry you if you consented in the spirit 
in which you are taking him? Once, it is true, I 
wanted to. You refused to cheat me — those were 
your words — and I begged you to cheat me, I im- 


246 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

plored you to cheat me, so long as you gave me 
yourself. 

“ I did n’t care how you took me, so long as you 
took me. But now I would n’t take you like that. 
Now, for this last week, I have seen you and him to- 
gether, and I knotv what it is like.” 

“ You have n’t seen us together much,” said Nadine. 

“ I have seen you enough : I told you before that 
your marriage was a farce. I was wrong. It ’s much 
worse than a farce. You need n’t laugh at a farce. 
But you can’t help laughing, at least I can’t, at a 
tragedy so ludicrous.” 

Nadine got up. The situation was as violent and 
sudden as some electric storm. What had been pent- 
up in him all this week, had exploded: something in 
her exploded also. 

“ I think I hate you,” she said. 

“ I am sure I despise you,” said he. 

He got up also, facing her. It was like the burst- 
ing of a reservoir : the great sheet of quiet water was 
suddenly turned into torrents and foam. 

“ I despise you,” he said again. “ You intended 
me to love you; you encouraged me to let myself go. 
All the time you held yourself in, though there was 
nothing to hold in ; you observed, you dissected. You 
cut down with your damned scalpels and lancets to 
my heart, and said, ‘ How interesting to see it beat- 
ing! ’ Then you looked coolly over your shoulder and 
saw Seymour, and said, ‘ He will do : he does n’t love 
me and I don’t love him ! ’ But now he does love you, 
and you probably guess that. So, very soon, your 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


247 

lancet will come out again, and you will see his heart 
beating. And again you will say, ‘ How interesting ! ’ 
But there will be blood on your lancet. You are safe, 
of course, from reprisals. No one can cut into you, 
and see your blood flow, because you have n’t any 
blood. You are something cold and hellish. You 
often said you understood me too well. Now you 
understand me even better. Toast my heart, fry it, eat 
it up ! I am utterly at your mercy, and you have n’t 
got any mercy. But I can manage to despise you : I 
can’t do much else.” 

Nadine stood quite still, breathing rather quickly, 
and that movement of the nostrils, which she had 
tried to copy from him, did not make her sneeze now. 

“ It is well we should know each other,” she said 
with an awful cold bitterness, “ even though we shall 
know each other for so little time more. It is always 
interesting to see the real person — ” 

“ If you mean me,” he said hotly, “ I always showed 
you the real person. I have never acted to you, nor 
pretended. And I have not changed. I am not 
responsible if you cannot see!” 

Nadine passed her tongue over her lips. They 
seemed hard and dry, not flexible enough for speech. 

“ It was my blindness then,” she said. “ But we 
know where we are now. I hate you, and you despise 
me. We know now.” 

Then suddenly an impulse, wholy uncontrollable, 
and coming from she knew not where, seized and com- 
pelled her. She held out both her hands to him. 

“ Hughie, shake hands with me,” she said. “ This 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


248 

has been nightmare talk, a bad thing that one dreams. 
Shake hands with me, and that will wake us both up. 
What we have been saying to each other is impossible : 
it is n’t real or true. It is utter nonsense we have 
been talking.” 

How he longed to take her hands and clasp them 
and kiss them ! How he longed to wipe off all he had 
said, all she had said. But somehow it was beyond 
him to do it. It was by honest impulse that the words 
of hate and contempt had risen to their lips ; the words 
might be canceled, but what could not be quenched, 
until some mistake was shown in the workings of 
their souls, was the thought-fire that had made them 
boil up. She stood there, lovely and welcoming, the 
girl whom his whole soul loved, whose conduct his 
whole soul despised, eager for reconciliation, yearn- 
ing for a mutual forgiveness. But her request was 
impossible. God could not cancel the bitterness that 
had made him speak. He threw his hands wide. 

“ It ’s no good,” he said. “ I am sorry I said cer- 
tain things, for there was no use in saying them. But 
I can’t help feeling that which made me say them. 
Cancel the speeches by all means. Let the words be 
unsaid with all my heart.” 

“ But let us be prepared to say them again ? ” said 
Nadine quietly. “ It comes to that.” 

“ Yes, it comes to that. I am not jealous of Sey- 
mour. I laughed when you suggested it; and I am 
not jealous, because you don’t love him. If you 
loved him, I should be jealous, and I should say, ‘ God 
bless you ! ’ As it is — ” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


249 


“ As it is, you say ‘ Damn you/ ” said Nadine. 

Hugh shook his head. 

“ You don’t understand anything about love/’ he 
said. “ How can you until you know a little bit what 
it means ? I could no more think or say ‘ Damn you/ 
than I could say ‘ God bless you/ ” 

Nadine had withdrawn from her welcome and 
desire for reconciliation. 

“ Neither would make any difference to me/’ she 
said. 

“I don’t suppose they would, since I make no 
difference to you,” said he. “ But there is no sense in 
adding hypocrisy to our quarrel.” 

Nadine sat down again on the sweet turf. 

“ I cancel my words, then, even if you do not,” she 
said. “ I don’t hate you. I can’t hate you, any more 
than you can despise me. We must have been talk- 
ing in nightmare.” 

“ I am used to nightmare,” said Hugh. “ I have 
had six months of nightmare. I thought that I could 
wake ; I thought I could — could pinch myself awake 
by seeing you and Seymour together. But it ’s still 
nightmare.” 

Nadine looked up at him. 

“Oh, Hughie, if I loved you!” she said. 

Hugh looked at her a moment, and then turned 
away from her. Outside of his control certain 
muscles worked in his throat ; he felt strangled. 

“ I can say * God bless you ’ for that, Nadine,” he 
said huskily. “ I do say it. God bless you, my 
darling.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


250 

Nadine had leaned her face on her hands when he 
turned away. She divined why he turned from her, 
she heard the huskiness of his voice, and the thought 
of Hughie wanting to cry gave her a pang that she had 
never yet known the like of. There was a long silence, 
she sitting with hand-buried face, he seeing the sun- 
light swim and dance through his tears. Then he 
touched her on the shoulder. 

“ So we are friends again in spite of ourselves,” he 
said. “ Just one thing more then, since we can talk 
without — without hatred and contempt. Why did 
you refuse to marry me, because you did not love me, 
and yet consent to marry Seymour like that ? ” 

She looked up at him. 

“ Oh, Hughie, you fool,” she said. “ Because you 
matter so much more.” 

He smiled back at her. 

“ I don’t want to wish I mattered less,” he said. 

“ You could n’t matter less.” 

He had no reply to this, and sat down again beside 
her. After a little Nadine turned to him. 

“ And I said I thought it was such a calm morning,” 
she said. 

“ And I said that storm was coming,” said he. 

She laid her hand on his knee. 

“ And will there be some pleasant weather now?” 
she said. “ Oh, Hughie, what would n’t I give to 
get two or three of the old days back again, when we 
babbled and chattered and were so content? ” 

“ Speak for yourself, miss,” said Hugh. “ And for 
God’s sake don’t let us begin again. I shall quarrel 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


251 

with you again, and — and it gives me a pain. Look 
here, it ’s a bad job for me all this, but I came here to 
get an oasis: also to pinch myself awake: metaphors 
are confusing things. Bring on your palms and 
springs. They have n’t put in an appearance yet. 
Let ’s try anyhow.” 

Nadine sat up. 

“ Talking of the weather — ” she began. 

“I was n’t.” 

“ Yes, you were, before we began to exchange com- 
pliments.” 

She broke off suddenly. 

“ Oh, Hughie, what has happened to the sun ? ” 
she said. 

“ I know it is the moon,” said Hugh. 

“ You need n’t quote that. The shrew is tamed for 
a time. It ’s a shrew-mouse, a lady mouse with a foul 
temper; do you think? About the sun — look.” 

It was worth looking at. Right round it, two or 
three diameters away, ran a complete halo, a pale white 
line in the abyss of the blue sky. The little feathers 
of wind-blown clouds had altogether vanished, and the 
heavens were untarnished from horizon to zenith. 
But the heat of the rays had sensibly diminished, and 
though the sunshine appeared as whole-hearted as 
ever, it was warm no longer. 

“ This is my second conjuring-trick,” said Hugh. 
“ I make you a whirlwind, and now I make you a ring 
round the sun, and cut off the heating apparatus. 
Things are going to happen. Look at the sea, too. 
My orders.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


252 

The sea was also worth looking at. An hour ago 
it had been turquoise blue, reflecting the sky. Now it 
seemed to reflect a moonstone. It was gray-white, a 
corpse of itself, as it had been. Then even as they 
looked, it seemed to vanish altogether. The horizon 
line was blotted out, for the sky was turning gray also, 
and both above and below, over the cliff-edge, there 
was nothing but an invisible gray of emptiness. The 
sun hal6 spread both inwards and outwards, so that 
the sun itself peered like a white plate through some 
layer of vapor that had suddenly formed across the 
whole field of the heavens. And still not a whistle or 
sigh of wind sounded. 

Hugh got up. 

“As I have forgotten what my third conjuring 
trick is,” he said, “ I think we had better go home. It 
looks as if it was going to be a violent one.” 

He paused a moment, peering out into the invisible 
sea. Then there came a shrill faint scream from 
somewhere out in the dim immensity. 

“ Hold on to me, Nadine,” he cried. “ Or lie 
down.” 

He felt her arm in his, and they stood there to- 
gether. 

The scream increased in volume, becoming a maniac 
bellow. Then, like a solid wall, the wind hit them. 
It did not begin, out of the dead calm, as a breeze ; it 
did not grow from breeze to wind ; it came from sea- 
wards, like the waters of the Red Sea on the hosts of 
Pharaoh, an overwhelming wall of riot and motion. 
Nadine’s books, all but the one she had cast over the 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


253 

cliff’s edge, turned over, and lay with flapping pages; 
then like wounded birds they were blown along the 
hillside. The hat she had brought out with her, but 
had not put on, rose straight in the air, and vanished. 
Hugh, with Nadine on his arm, had leaned forward 
against this maniac blast, and the two were not thrown 
down by it. The path to the house lay straight up the 
steep hillside behind them, and turning they were so 
blown up it, that they stumbled in trying to keep pace 
to that irresistible torrent of wind that hurried them 
along. It took them but five minutes to get up the 
steep brae, while it had taken them ten minutes to 
walk down, and already there flew past them seaweed 
and sand and wrack, blown up from the beach below. 
Above, the sun was completely veiled, a riot of cloud 
had already obscured the higher air, but below, all 
was clear, and it looked as if a stone could be tossed 
upon the hills on the farther side of the bay. 

They had to cross the garden before they came to 
the house. Already two trees had fallen before this 
hurricane-blast, and even as they hurried over the 
lawn, an elm, screaming in all its full-foliaged boughs, 
leaned towards them, and cracked and fell. Then a 
chimney in the house itself wavered in outline, and 
next moment it crashed down upon the roof, and a 
covey of flying tiles fell round them. 

It required Hugh’s full strength to close the door 
again, after they had entered, and Nadine turned to 
him, flushed and ecstatic. 

“ Hughie, how divine ! ” she said. “ It can’t be 
measured, that lovely force. It ’s infinite. I never 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


254 

knew there was strength like that. Why have we 
come in? Let’s go out again. It’s God: it’s just 
God.” 

His eyes, too, were alight with it and his soul surged 
to his lips. 

“ Yes, God,” he said. “ And that ’s what love is. 
Rather — rather big, is n’t it ? ” 

And then for the first time, Nadine understood. 
She did not feel, but she was able to understand. 

“ Oh, Hughie,” she said, “ how splendid it must be 
to feel like that ! ” 

The section of the party which had gone to play golf 
on this changeable morning, were blown home a few 
minutes later, and they all met at lunch. Edith 
Arbuthnot had arrived before any of them got back, 
and asked if the world had been blown away. As 
it had not, she expressed herself ready to chaperone 
anybody. 

“ And Berts is happy too,” said Seymour, when he 
came in very late for lunch, since he wished to change 
all his clothes first, as they ‘ smelled of wind,’ “ be- 
cause Berts has at last driven a ball two hundred yards. 
Don’t let us mention the subject of golf. It would 
be tactless. There was no wind when he accomplished 
that remarkable feat, at least not more wind than 
there is now. What there was was behind him, and 
he topped his ball heavily. I said ‘ Good shot.’ But 
I have tact. Since I have tact, I don’t say to Nadine 
that it was a good day to sit out on the hillside and 
read. I would scorn the suggestion.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


255 

A sudden sound as of drums on the window inter- 
rupted this tactful speech, and the panes streamed. 

“ Anyhow I shall play golf,” said Edith. “ What 
does a little rain matter? I’m not made of paper.” 

“ That ’s a good thing, Mother,” said Berts. 

“ If you want to win a match, play with Berts,” said 
Seymour pensively. “ But if you only want to be 
blown away and killed, anybody will do. I shall get 
on with my embroidery this afternoon, and my maid 
will sit by me and hold my hand. Dear me, I hope the 
house is well built.” 

For the moment it certainly seemed as if this was 
not the case, for the whole room shook under a sudden 
gust more appalling than anything they had felt yet. 
Then it died away again, and once more the windows 
were deluged with sheets of rain flung, it seemed, 
almost horizontally against them. For a few min- 
utes only that lasted, and then the wind settled down, 
so it seemed, to blow with a steady uniform violence. 

Nadine had finished lunch and gone across to the 
window. The air was perfectly clear, and the hills 
across the bay seemed again but a stone’s-throw away. 
Overhead, straight across the sky, stretched a roof 
of cloud, but away to the West, just above the horizon 
line, there was an arch of perfectly clear sky, of pale 
duck’s-egg green, and out of this it seemed as out of 
a funnel the fury of the gale was poured. The garden 
was strewn with branches and battered foliage and the 
long gravel path flooded by the tempest of rain was 
discharging itself upon the lawn, where pools of bright 
yellow water were spreading. Across it too lay the 


256 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

wreck of the fallen trees, the splintered corpses of 
what an hour ago had been secure and living things, 
waiting, warm and drowsy, for the tingle of spring- 
time and rising sap. Like the bodies of young men 
on a battlefield, with their potentialities of love and 
life unfulfilled, there, by the blast of the insensate fury 
of the wind they lay stricken and dead, and the birds 
would no more build in their branches, nor make their 
shadowed nooks melodious with love-songs. No 
more would summer clothe them in green, nor autumn 
in their liveries of gold: they were dead things and 
at the most would make a little warmth on the hearth, 
before the feathery ash, all that was left of them, 
was dispersed on the homeless winds. 

But the pity of this blind wantonness of destruction 
was more than compensated for in the girl’s mind by 
the savagery and force of the unlooked-for hurricane, 
and she easily persuaded Hugh to come out with her 
and be beaten and stormed upon. Always sensitive 
to the weather, this portentous storm had aroused in 
her a sort of rapture of restlessness: she rejoiced in 
it, and somehow feared it for its ruthlessness and 
indifference. 

They took the path that led downward to the beach, 
for it was the tumult and madness of the sea that 
Nadine especially wished to observe. Though as yet 
the gale had been blowing only an hour or two, it had 
raised a monstrous sea, and long before they came 
down within sight of it, they heard the hoarse thunder 
and crash of broken waters penetrating the screaming 
bellow of the gale, and the air was salt with spray and 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 257 

flying foam. To the West there was still clear that 
arch of open sky through which the gale poured; 
somewhere behind the clouds to the left of it, the sun 
was near to its setting, and a pale livid light shone 
out of it, catching the tops of the breakers as they 
streamed landwards. Between these foam-capped 
tops lay gray hollows and darknesses, out of which 
would suddenly boil another crest of mountainous 
water. The tide was only at half flood, but the sea, 
packed by the astounding wind, was already breaking 
at the foot of the cliffs themselves, while in the troughs 
of the waves as they rode in, there appeared and dis- 
appeared again the scattered rocks from some remote 
cliff-fall, that were strewn about the beach. Some- 
times a wave would strike one of these full, and be 
shattered against it, spouting heavenwards in a column 
of solid water; oftener the breakers swept over them 
unbroken, until with menace of their toppling crests 
they flung themselves with huge tongues of hissing 
water on the rocks at the foot of the cliffs. Then with 
the scream of the withdrawn shingle the spent water 
was furiously dragged back to the base of the next 
incoming wave, and was caught up again to hurl itself 
against the land. Sometimes a sudden blast of wind 
would cut off the crest of the billow even as it curled 
over, and fling it, a monstrous riband of foam, through 
the air, sometimes two waves converging rose up in 
a fountain of water, and fell back without having 
reached the shore. This way and that, rushing and 
rolling, in hills and valleys of water, the maddened sea 
crashed and thundered, and every moment the spray 


258 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

rose more densely from the infernal cauldron. Then 
as the tide rose higher, the waves came in unbroken, 
and hurled their tons of water against the face of the 
cliff itself. Above, continuous as a water- fall, rose 
the roar and scream of the gale, ominous, insensate, 
bewildering: it was as if the elements were being 
transferred back into the chaos out of which they 
came. 

Nadine and Hugh, clinging together for support, 
stood there for some minutes, half-way down the side 
of the cliff, watching the terror and majesty of the 
spectacle, she utterly absorbed in it and cruelly un- 
conscious of him. Then, since they could no longer 
get down to the base of the cliff, they skirted along it 
till they came to the sandy foreshore of the bay. 
There from water-level they could better see the huge- 
ness of the tumult, the strange hardness and steepness 
of the wave-slopes. It was as if a line of towers and 
great buildings were throwing themselves down upon 
the sands, and breaking up into walls and eddies of 
foam-sheeted water, while behind them there rose 
again another street of toppling buildings, which again 
shattered itself on the beach. Great balls of foam 
torn from the spent water trundled by them on the 
sands, and bunches of brown seaweed torn from the 
rocks were flung in handfuls at their feet. Once 
from the arch in the sky westwards, a dusky crimson 
light suddenly burned, turning the wave crests to 
blood, and then as the darkness of the early winter 
sunset gathered, they turned, and were blown up the 
steep cliff-path again, wet and buffeted. Conversation 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 259 

had been altogether impossible, and they could but 
communicate with pointing finger, and nodding head. 
Yet, somehow, to be together thus, cut off by the rise 
of winds and waves, from all sense of the existence of 
others, in that pandemonium of tempest, gave to Hugh 
at least a closer feeling of intimacy with Nadine, than 
he had ever yet known. She clung to him, she shel- 
tered under his shoulder, unconsciously, instinctively, 
as an animal trusts his master, without knowing it is 
trusting. And that to his aching hunger for her was 
something. . . . 

But the gale was to bring them closer together yet. 


CHAPTER X 


A LL the evening and all night long the gale con- 
tinued. Now and then the constant scream of 
it would leap upwards a couple of octaves as a shriller 
blast struck the houses and again for a moment the 
mad chant would drop into silence. From time to 
time like a tattoo of drums the rain battered at the 
window-panes, but through it all, whether in hushes 
of the wind or when its fiercest squall descended, the 
beat of the surf sounded ever louder. And all 
through the night, the result perhaps of his agitated 
talk with Nadine in the morning, or of his intimate 
gale-encompassed isolation with her in the afternoon, 
Hugh turned and tossed midway between sleeping and 
waking. Sometimes he seemed to himself to be yell- 
ing round the house among the spirits of the air seek- 
ing admittance, sometimes it seemed to him that he 
was being beaten on by the hammer of the surf, and 
whether he was homelessly wandering outside among 
the spirits of the wind, or was being done to death 
by those incessant blows of the beating waves, it was 
Nadine that he sought. And as the night went on 
the anguish of his desire grew ever more acute, and 
the beating of the waves a more poignant torture, until 
while yet no faintest lightening of winter's dawn had 
260 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 261 

touched the gross blackness of the night, he roused 
himself completely, and sat up in bed and turned on 
his light 

To him awake the riot outside was vastly magnified 
compared with the dimmer trouble of his dream; so 
was his yearning for Nadine. His windows looked 
eastwards away from the quarter of the gale, and 
getting out of bed, he lifted a sash, and peered out 
Nothing whatever could be seen ; it was as if he gazed 
into the darkness of the nethermost pit, out of which 
blown by the blast of the anger of God came the shrieks 
of souls that might not rest, driven forever along, 
drenched by the river of their unavailing tears. Even 
though he was awake the strange remote horror of 
nightmare was on him, and it was in vain that he 
tried to comfort himself, by saying, like some child re- 
peating a senseless lesson, “ A deep depression has 
reached us traveling eastwards from the Atlantic.” 
He tried to read, but still the nightmare-sense possessed 
him, and he fancied he had to read a whole line, neither 
more nor less, between the poundings of the waves. 
Then as usually happens towards the end of these Wal- 
purgis nights, he got back to bed again, and slept 
calmly and dreamlessly. 

He and Seymour alone out of the party put in an ap- 
pearance at breakfast time: it seemed probable that 
the others were compensating themselves for a dis- 
turbed night by breakfasting upstairs, and afterwards 
the two went out together to look at the doings of the 
night. By this time the wind had considerably mod- 
erated, the rain had ceased altogether, and the thick 


262 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

pall of cloud that had last night overlain the sky was 
split up into fragments and islands, and flying vapors, 
so that here and there pale shafts of sunlight shone 
upon land and sea. But the thunder of the surf had 
immeasurably increased, and when they went to the 
cliff-edge which he and Nadine had passed down 
yesterday afternoon, they looked upon an indescrib- 
able confusion of tremendous waters. The tide was 
low, but the bay was still packed with the sea heaped- 
up by the wind, and the end of the reef with its big scat- 
tered rocks was out beyond the walls of breaking water. 
The sea appeared to have been driven distraught by 
the stress of the night; cross currents carried the 
waves in all directions: it almost seemed that some, 
shrinking from the wall of cliff in front, were trying 
to beat out to sea again. Quite out, away from land, 
they jousted and sparred with each other, not jest- 
ingly, but, it seemed, with some grim purpose, as if 
they were practising their strength for deeds of earnest 
violence, as for some fierce civil war among them- 
selves. It was round the furthest rocks of the reef 
that this sport of billowy giants most centered : right 
across the bay ran some current that set on to the end 
of the reef, and there it met with the waves coming 
straight in-shore from the direction of the blowing of 
the gale. Then they spouted and foamed together, 
yet not in play: some purpose, so regular were 
these rounds of combat, seemed to underlie their 
wrestlings. 

Hugh threw away a charred peninsula of paper, 
once a cigarette, which the wind had smoked for him. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


263 

He never had felt much sense of comradeship in the 
presence of Seymour, and their after-breakfast stroll 
had no more virtue than was the reward of necessary 
politeness. 

“ There is something rather senseless in this dis- 
play of wasted energy,” said Seymour. “ Each of 
those waves would probably cook a dinner, if its force 
was reasonably employed.” 

Hugh, in spite of his restless night, had something 
of Nadine’s thrilled admiration for the turmoil, and 
felt slightly irritated. 

“ They would certainly cook your goose or mine,” 
he remarked. 

Seymour wondered whether it would be well to say, 
“ Do you allude to Nadine as our goose? ” but, perhaps 
wisely, refrained. 

“ That would be to the good,” he said. “ Goose is 
a poor bird at any time, but uneatable unless properly 
roasted.” 

Hugh did not attend to this polite rejoinder, for 
he had caught sight of something incredible not so 
far out at sea, and he focused his eyes instantly on it. 
For the moment, what he thought he had seen com- 
pletely vanished ; directly afterwards he caught sight 
of it again, a fishing-boat with mast broken, reeling 
drunkenly on the top of a huge wave. His quick, long- 
sighted eye told him in that one moment of slewing 
deck that it presented to them, before it was swallowed 
from sight in the trough of the next wave, that there 
were two figures on it, clinging to the stump of the 
broken mast. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


264 

“ Look,” he said, “ there is a boat out there.” 

It rose again to the crest of a wave and again 
plunged giddily out of sight. The incoming tide was 
bearing it swiftly shore wards, swiftly also the cross- 
current that set towards the end of the reef was bear- 
ing it there. 

Hugh did not pause. He laid hold of Seymour by 
the shoulder. 

“ Run up to the house,” he said, “ and fetch a couple 
of men. Bring down with you as much rope as you 
can find. Don’t say anything to Nadine and the 
women. But be quick.” 

He ran down to the beach himself, as Seymour 
went on his errand, seeing at once that there were two 
things that might happen to this stricken wanderer of 
a ship. In one case, the incoming tide with its fol- 
lowing waves might bear it straight on to the sandy 
beach ; in the other the cross-current, in which now it 
was laboring, might carry it across to the reef where 
the waves were wrestling and roaring together. It 
was in case of this first contingency that he ran down 
upon the sands to be ready. The beach was steep 
there: it would ride it until it was flung down by 
that fringe of toppling, hard-edged breakers. In that 
tumble and scurry of surf it might easily be that 
strong arms could drag out of the fury of the back- 
wash whatever was cast there. The boat, a decked 
fishing-boat, would be dumped down on the sand: 
there would be a half-minute, or a quarter-minute, 
when something might be done. On the other hand 
this greedy sucking current might carry it on to the 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 265 

reef. Then, by the mercy of God, a rope might be of 
some avail, if a man could reach them. 

As he ran down the cliff, a sudden splash of sunlight 
broke through the clouds, making a bright patch of 
illumination round the boat as it swung over another 
breaker. There was only one figure there now, lying 
full length on the deck, and clinging with both hands 
to the stump of the mast. Then once again the water 
broke over it, lucidly green in the sunlight, and all 
Hugh’s heart went out to that solitary prone body, 
lying there helpless in the hands of God and the gale. 
His heart stood still to see whether when next the 
drifting boat reappeared it would be tenantless, and 
with a sob in his throat, “ Oh, thank God,” he said, 
when he saw it again. 

It was still doubtful whether the current or the tide 
would win, and Hugh pulled off his coat and waistcoat, 
and threw them on the beach, in order to be able to rush 
in unimpeded of hand and muscle. Then with a 
strange sickness of heart, he saw that the boat was get- 
ting in nearer, but moving sideways across to the left, 
where the reef lay. And he waited, in the suspense 
of powerlessness. The wind now had quite abated; 
it was as if it had done its work, in making ready 
this theater of plunging water ; now waited to observe 
what drama should be moving across the stage of 
billows. 

Soon from behind, he heard across the shingle at 
the top of the beach the approach of the others. 
Seymour had brought Berts and two men with him, 
and they brought with them half-a-dozen long coils 


266 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

of rope, part of the fire-rescue apparatus of the house. 
While watching and waiting for them, his plan was 
quite made. It was no longer possible to hope that 
the boat would come to land on the sandy beach, where 
without doubt two or three able-bodied men could 
rescue any one cast up, but was driving straight on to 
the rocks. Once there, rescue was all but impossible ; 
the only chance lay in reaching it before it was 
smashed to atoms on the immense boulders and sharp- 
toothed fangs. Quickly he tied three of the ropes .to- 
gether, and fastened the end round his body just below 
the shoulders, and took off his boots. 

“ I ’m going in,” he said ; “ you all hold the rope 
and pay it out. If I come near the end of it, tie a 
fresh piece on — ” 

Suddenly across the shingle came footsteps, and a 
cry. Nadine ran down the beach towards them. 
She was clad only in a dressing-gown, that rainbow- 
hued one in which one night last June she had enter- 
tained a company in her bedroom, and slippers so that 
her ankles showed white and bare. She saw what 
Hugh intended, and something within her, some deni- 
zen of her soul, who till that moment had been un- 
known to her, took possession of her. 

“No, Hughie, not you, not you,” she screamed. 
“ Seymour, anybody, but not you ! ” 

The cry had come from her very heart ; she could 
no more have stifled it than she could have stopped 
the beating of it. Then, suddenly, she realized what 
she had said, and sank down on the beach, burying 
her face in her hands. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 267 

“ Take care of her, Seymour,” said Hugh, and 
there was more heroism required for these few little 
words, than for the desperate feat he was about to 
attempt. He did not look round again, nor wish to 
say anything more, and there was no time to lose. 

“ Now, you chaps ! ” he called out, and ran forward 
to the edge of the water. 

At the moment an immense billow poised and curled 
just in front of him. The wash of it covered him 
waist-deep and he floundered and staggered as the 
rush of water went by him. Then as it drew out to 
sea again he ran with it, to where another breaker 
was toppling in front of him. With a low outward 
spring he dived into the hollowed water head foremost 
and passed through it. 

The beach was very steep here, and coming up 
again through and beyond the line of surf, he found 
himself in deep water. Behind him lay the breaking 
line of billows, but in front the huge mountains of 
water rose and fell unbroken. As he was lifted up 
on the first of these, swimming strongly against it, 
he saw not a hundred yards from him his helpless 
and drifting goal. He could see, too, who it was who 
lay there, desperately clinging to the stump of the 
mast with white slender wrists; it was quite a young 
boy. And at that sight, Hugh’s pity and determina- 
tion were strung higher than ever. Here was a young 
creature, in desperate plight among these desperate 
waterways, one who should not yet have known what 
peril meant. And at the risk of spending a little 
strength, when strength was so valuable, Hugh gave a 


268 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

great shout of notice and encouragement. Then he 
was swallowed up in the trough of a wave again. But 
when he rose next, he saw that the boy had raised his 
head, and that he saw him. 

The current that swept towards the rocks, swept 
also a little shorewards, and Hugh measuring the dis- 
tance between the boat and the fatal breakers with his 
eye, and measuring again the distance between the 
boat and himself, knew that he must exert himself to 
the point of exhaustion to get to the boat before it 
was drifted to its final destruction. But as he swam 
he knew he had made a mistake in not taking off his 
shirt and trousers also and giving himself an unim- 
peded use of his limbs. His trousers particularly 
dragged and hampered him ; then suddenly he remem- 
bered a water-game at which he used to be expert at 
school, namely taking a header into the bathing-place 
in flannels and undressing in the water. It seemed 
worth while to sacrifice a few seconds to accomplish 
that, and, as cool and collected as when he was doing 
it for mere sport at school, he trod water, slipped his 
legs out of his trousers, and saw them float away from 
him. Then twice as vigorous, he struck out again. 
His shirt did not bother him: besides, the rope was 
tied round his chest, and there was not time for more 
disencumbrances. 

For the next five minutes, for he was fighting the 
tide, he just swam and swam. Occasionally rising 
to a wave it seemed to him that he was making no 
headway at all, but somehow that did not discourage 
him. The only necessity that concerned him was 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


269 

that he must go till he could go no longer. And all 
the time, like a dream and yet like a draught of wine 
to him was Nadine’s involuntary cry, “ No, Hughie, 
not you!” He did not trouble to guess what that 
meant. He was only conscious that it invigorated 
and inspired him. 

The minutes passed; once the rope seemed to jerk 
him back, and he found himself swearing underneath 
his breath. Then, though it was terribly heavy, he 
realized that it was free again, and that he was not 
being hampered. Then he suddenly found himself 
much closer to the boat than he had any idea of, and 
this, though he was getting very tired, gave him a new 
supply of nervous force. He swam into three valleys 
more, he surmounted three ridges of water, and lo, 
the boat was on the peaks directly opposite to him, and 
from opposite sides they plunged into the same valley 
together. Not fifty yards off to the left, incredible 
fountains of foam spouted and aspired. 

Then, oh, blessed moment! he caught hold of the 
side of the lurching fishing-smack, and a pale little 
boyish frightened face was close to his. He clung 
for a second to the side, and they went up and down 
two big billows together. Then he got breath enough 
to speak. 

“ Now, little chap,” he said, “ don’t be frightened, 
for we ’re all right. Catch hold of the rope here, close 
to my body, and just jump in. Yes, that’s right. 
Plucky boy! Take hold with both hands of the rope. 
Not so cold, is it? ” 

Once again, before he let go of the boat, they rose 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


270 

to an immense wall of water, and Hugh saw the fig- 
ures on the beach, four of them standing in the wash 
of the sea, paying out the rope, and one standing 
there also a little apart waving seawards, clapping 
her hands. And what she said came to him clear 
and distinct across the hills and valleys of destruc- 
tion. 

“ Oh, Hughie, well done, well done ! ” she cried. 

“ Now pull, all of you, pull him in! ” 

He was glad she added that, for in the hurry of 
the moment he had given no instructions as to what 
they were to do when he reached the boat; and what 
seemed so obvious out here might not have seemed so 
obvious to those on the beach, and he was not sure 
that there was enough power left in him to shout to 
them. But Nadine understood: once she had said 
she understood him too well. It was enough now that 
she understood him enough. 

He let go of the boat. For a moment it seemed in- 
clined to follow them, and he thought the bowsprit 
was going to hit him. Then he felt a little pull on the 
rope under his shoulders, and the boat made a sort of 
bow of farewell, and slid away towards the spouting 
towers of foam. Hugh was utterly exhausted: he 
could just paddle with a hand or kick downwards to 
keep his head above water, but he gave away one 
breath yet. 

“ Nothing to be frightened at,” he said. “ We ’re 
all right now.” 

The buoyant water, for all the wickedness of its 
foam and savage hunger, sustained him sufficiently. 


DODO'S DAUGHTER 271 

He turned round seawards in the water so that the 
great surges did not overwhelm him from behind, and 
put an arm on the rope underneath the boy’s neck, so 
as to support them both. He forced himself even in 
his utter weariness to be collected and to remember 
that for several minutes yet there was nothing what- 
ever to be done, except with the minimum possible of 
exertion to keep afloat, while the rope towed them 
back towards that line of steep towers and curling 
precipices beyond which lay the shore, and those who 
stood on the shore. Sometimes the crest of a wave 
broke over them, almost smothering him, but then 
again they found themselves on a downward hillside 
of water, where the panting lungs could be satisfied, 
and the laboring heart supplied. Somewhere inside 
of him he knew he wanted to know where this poor 
foundered fishing-smack had come from and how this 
young boy had managed to cling to it, but he had not 
sufficient strength to give voice to his desire, for all 
that he had must be husbanded to meet that final 
assault of the row of breakers through which they 
had to pass. 

And as they got nearer, he began to form his plan. 
This young unknown life, precious to him now as an 
unborn baby to a woman, was given into his charge. 
It seemed to him that, as a woman has to bring the 
life within her to birth whatever it costs her, so he had 
to save the life of this unknown little fisher-boy, and 
take all risks himself. Whatever lay beyond that 
line of breakers, his business was here, and he did not 
for one second argue the values. He did not forget 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


272 

Nadine nor her last cry to him as he set forth on his 
peril, but for the moment there was something that 
concerned him even more than Nadine, and he had 
to make the best plans he could for saving this young 
life that had been put in his hands, even if he fought 
God over it. The only question was how to get the 
best chance of saving it. 

They were close in now, and this three-minute pause 
of floating had restored him. He was just conscious 
of bitter cold, even as he was conscious of the group 
on the edge of the sand, and of the hissing waters. 
But none of these things seemed to have anything to 
do with him; they were but external phenomena. 
Between him and the shore were still three towering 
lines of breakers, sharp-edged and steep as rocks : the 
third of these suddenly fumbled and disappeared with 
a thick thud, and an uprising of shattered spray. And 
suddenly his plan proved itself, fully-finished to his 
mind. 

He had been swimming for not more than a quarter 
of an hour, and the minutes of that fierce outward 
struggle which had seemed so long to him had to 
Nadine passed in a flash. For once she had got 
completely outside herself, and, concentrated and 
absorbed in another, the time had gone by in one flare 
of triumphant expectation. For one moment after 
that heart’s cry had been flung out of her she had sat 
dazed and bewildered by the consciousness that it 
seemed to have revealed to her, for until she had cried 
out that Seymour, that anybody but Hugh, must make 
the desperate attempt, she had not known her own 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 273 

heart, nor could she have, for it was not till then that 
it was unlocked to herself. When she looked up again 
Hugh had already plunged through the breakers, and 
was swimming, and instantly her soul was with him 
there in the inhuman sea, glorying in his strength, 
proud of the splendid and desperate adventure, and not 
for one moment doubtful of its success. None but he, 
she felt, could do it, and it was impossible that he 
should fail. She would not have had him back by her 
side saying that the attempt was mere suicide, for all 
the happiness that the world contained, and had she 
been able to change places with the boy who clung to the 
helpless boat, she would have sprung ecstatic to the 
noble risk, for the sake of having Hugh battle the seas 
on his way to rescue her. Failing that, it had been 
gloriously ordained that he should do this, and that she 
should stand with heart uplifted and be privileged 
to see the triumphant venture. She saw him reach 
the boat, knowing that he would, and clapped her 
hands and called to him, and with bright eyes and 
laughing mouth she eagerly watched him getting 
nearer. Then, just at the moment when Hugh made 
his plan, she realized that between him and her there 
lay that precipice of water that kept flinging itself 
down in thunder on the shore, and ever re-forming 
again. And the light died out of her face, and she 
grew ashen gray to the lips and watched. 

Hugh had been floating with his face seawards. 
Now he turned round to the shore again. She saw 
him smile at the boy, as they rose on the crest of a 
wave, and she saw him speak. 


274 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Now we ’re all right,” was what he said. “ Get 
on my back, and hold on to my shoulders.” 

The rope had ceased to pull. The men in control 
of it just held it taut, waiting to pull when the exact 
moment came. The boy did as he was told, and next 
moment the two rose up on the crest of the line of 
breakers. Twenty feet below him as they topped it, 
Hugh looked over upon the backwash of the preced- 
ing wave which was being dragged into the billow 
which bore them and was growing higher as it rose to 
its ruin. But the boy’s fall would be broken : at least 
this plan seemed to give the best chance. 

Then the wave curled, and he was flung forwards, 
twisting as he fell. He saw the slim little figure he 
had been carrying shot over his shoulder, and flung 
clear of the direct impact of the wave on the beach, 
and he heard his mind say, “ That won’t hurt him.” 

Then he felt something stupendous, as heavy as the 
world, strike him on the back. After that he felt 
nothing more at all. 

As dusk was closing in, Nadine sat in the window 
of her big black-painted bedroom, where so many well- 
attended sessions had been held. Hugh had been in 
the surgeon’s hands since they carried him in, and 
all that could be done had been done. Afterwards 
Nadine had seen the surgeon, and learned from him 
all there was to fear and the little there was to hope 
for. It was possible that Hugh might not live till 
the morning, but simply pass away from the shock of 
his injuries. On the other hand his splendid con- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


275 

stitution might pull him through that. But given that 
he lived through the immediate danger, it was doubt- 
ful if he could ever lead an active life again. The 
boy he had saved was practically unhurt, and was fast 
asleep. 

Nadine sat there very quiet both in mind and body. 
She did not want to rave or rebel, she merely let her 
mind sit, as it were, in front of these things, and 
contemplate them, like a picture, until they became 
familiar. She felt they were not familiar yet; though 
she knew them to be true, they were somehow unreal 
and incredible. She did not yet grasp them : it seemed 
to her that her mind was stunned and was incapable of 
apprehending them. So she had to keep her attention 
fixed on them, until they became real. Yet she found 
it difficult to control her mind: it kept wandering off 
into concentric circles round the center of the only 
significant thing in the world. 

Out on the sea the sun had set, and there were cloud- 
bars of fading crimson on the horizon level across a 
field of saffron yellow. This yellow toned off into 
pale watery green, and high up in the middle of that 
was one little cloud like an island that still blazed 
in the sunlight of the upper air. Somehow that 
aroused a train of half- forgotten reminiscences. 
There had been a patch of sunlight once like an island, 
on the gray of the sea . . . it was connected with a 
picture . . . yes, it was a sketch which Esther had 
made for Hugh, 'and she had put in the island re- 
luctantly, saying it looked unreal in nature and would 
be worse in art. But Hugh had wanted it there, and, 


276 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

as Esther worked, she herself had walked with him 
along the beach from which he had been carried up to- 
day, and she had told him that he lived in unrealities, 
and pictured to himself that some day he and she 
would live on some golden sunlit island together. She 
remembered it all now. 

Her mind came back to the center again, and started 
off anew on that splendid deed of the morning. She 
had quite lost her head when she called out, “ No, 
Hughie, not you ! ” It must have been Hugh to do 
it, no one else could have done it. The idea of Berts 
or Seymour wrestling with and overcoming that 
mountainous and maddened sea was unthinkable. 
Only Hugh could have done it, and the deed was as 
much part of him as his brown eyes or his white 
strong teeth. And if at the end the sea had flung 
him down and broken him, that was after he had 
laughed at the peril and snatched its prey out of its 
very jaws! Even as things were now with him, Na- 
dine could not regret what he had done, and if time 
had run back, and she saw him again plunging into 
that riot and turmoil, she felt that she would not now 
cry out to him like that. She would have called God- 
speed to him instead. 

Once again her mind rippled away from its center. 
She had called out to Seymour or Berts to go. At 
the time it had been quite instinctive, but she saw now 
what had prompted her instinct. She meant — 
though then she did not know she meant it — that 
she could spare any one but Hugh. That was what it 
came to, and she wondered if Hugh had understood 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


277 

that. Seymour without doubt must have done so: 
he was so clever. Probably he would tell her he un- 
derstood, and ask her if it was not that which was 
implied. But all such consideration seemed to her 
to matter very little. There was only one thing that 
mattered, and that was not whether Hugh lived or died 
even, but simply the fact of Hugh. 

Her mother had telegraphed that she was coming 
at once; and Nadine remembering that she had not 
told the servants got up and rang the bell. But be- 
fore it was answered there came an interruption for 
which she had been waiting. One of the two nurses 
whom the surgeon from Chester had brought with 
him knocked at the door. She had been tidying up, 
and removing all traces of what had been done. 

“ The room is neat again now,” she said, “ and you 
may come and just look at him.” 

“ Is he conscious or in pain? ” asked Nadine. 

“ No ; but he may regain consciousness at any time, 
but I don’t think he will have any pain.” 

They went together up the long silent passages in 
which there hung that curious hush which settles down 
on a house when death is hovering by it, and came to 
his door which stood ajar. Then from some sudden 
qualm and weakness of flesh, Nadine halted, shrinking 
from entering. 

“ Do not come unless you feel up to it,” said Nurse 
Bryerley. “ But there is nothing that will shock you.” 

Nadine hesitated no more, but entered. 

They had carried him not to his own room, but to 
another with a dressing-room adjoining. His bed 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


278 

stood along the wall to the left of the door, and he 
lay on his back with his head a little sideways towards 
it. There was nothing in the room that suggested 
illness, and when Nadine looked at his face there was 
nothing there that suggested it either. His eyes were 
closed, but his face was as untroubled as that of some 
quiet sleeper. In the wall opposite were the western- 
looking windows and the room was lit only by that 
fast-fading splendor. The cloud-island still hung in 
the sky, but it had turned gray as the light left it. 

Then even as Nadine looked at him, his eyes opened 
and he saw her. 

“ Nadine,” he said. 

The nurse stepped to the bedside. 

“ Ah, you are awake again,” she said. “ How do 
you feel?” 

“ Rather tired. But I want to speak to Nadine.” 

“ Yes, you can speak to her,” she said and signed to 
the girl to come. 

Nadine came across the room to him, and knelt 
down. 

“ Oh, Hughie,” she said, “ well done ! ” 

He looked at her, puzzled for the moment, with 
troubled eyes. 

“ You said that before,” he said. “ It was the last 
thing you said. Why did you — oh, I remember now. 
Yes, what a bang I came ! How ’s the little fellow, 
the one on my back? ” 

“ Quite unhurt, Hughie. He is asleep.” 

“ I thought he would n’t be hurt. It was the best 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 279 

plan I could think of. I say, why did you call to me 
not to go at first ? I had to.” 

“ I know now you had to,” said she. 

“ I want to ask you something else. How badly am 
I hurt?” 

Nadine looked up at the nurse a moment, who 
nodded to her. She understood exactly what that 
meant. 

“ You are very badly hurt, dear Hughie,” she said; 
“ But — but it is worth it fifty times over.” 

Hugh was silent a moment. 

“ Am I going to die ? ” he asked. 

Nadine did not need instruction about this. 

“No, a thousand times, no!” she said. “You’re 
going to get quite well. But you must be patient and 
rest and sleep.” 

Nadine’s throat grew suddenly small and aching, 
and she could not find her voice for a moment. 

“You are quite certainly going to live,” she said. 
“ To begin with, I can’t spare you ! ” 

Hugh’s eyelids fluttered and quivered. 

“By Jove!” he said, and next moment they had 
quite closed. 

The nurse signed to Nadine to get up and she rose 
very softly and tiptoed away. At the door she looked 
round once at Hugh, but already he was asleep. Then 
still softly she came back and kissed him on the fore- 
head and was gone again. 

She had been with him but a couple of minutes, but 
as she went back to her room, she heard the stir of 


28 o 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


arrivals in the hall, and went down. Dodo had that 
moment arrived. 

“ Nadine, my dear,” she said, “ I started the mo- 
ment I got your telegram. Tell me all you can. How 
is he? How did it happen? You only said he had 
had a bad accident, and wanted me.” 

Nadine kissed her. 

“ Oh ! Mama,” she said. “ Thank God it was n’t 
an accident. It was done on purpose. He meant it 
just like that. But you don’t know anything; I for- 
got. Will you come to my room ? ” 

“ Yes, let us go. Now tell me at once.” 

“ We have had a frightful gale,” she said, “ and 
this morning Hughie saw a fishing-boat close in land, 
driving on to the reef. There was just one shrimp 
of a boy on it, and Hughie went straight in, like a 
duck to water, and got him off and swam back with 
him. There was a rope and Seymour and Berts pulled 
him in. And when they got close in, Hughie put the 
boy on his back — oh, Mama, thank God for men 
like that! — and the breakers banged him down on 
the beach, and the boy was unhurt. And Hughie may 
die very soon, or he may live — ” 

Nadine’s voice choked for a moment. All day she 
had not felt a sob rise in her throat. 

“ And if he lives,” she said, “ he may never be able 
to walk again, and I love him.” 

Then came the tempest of tears, tears of joy and 
sorrow, a storm of them, fruitful as autumn rain, 
fruitful as the sudden deluges of April, with God- 
knows-what warmth of sun behind. The drought of 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 281 

summer in her, the ice of winter in her had been 
broken up in the rain that makes the growth and the 
life of the world. The frozen ground melted under 
it, the soil, cracked with drought, drank it in: the 
parody of life that she had lived became but the farce 
that preceded sweet serious drama, tragedy it might 
be, but something human. . . . And Dodo, woman 
also, understood that: she too had lived years that 
parodied herself, and knew what the awakening to 
womanhood was, and the immensity of that unsus- 
pected kingdom. It had come late to her, to Nadine 
early : some were almost born in consciousness of their 
birthright, others died without realizing it. So, 
mother and daughter, they sat there in silence, while 
Nadine wept her fill. 

“ It was the splendidest adventure,” she said at 
length, lifting her head. “ It was all so gay. He 
shouted to that little boy in the boat to encourage him 
to cling on, and oh, those damned reefs were so close. 
And when they rode in, Hughie like a horse with a 
child on his back over that — that precipice, he said 
something again to encourage him.” 

Nadine broke down again for a moment. 

“ Hughie never thought about himself at all,” she 
said. “ He used always to think about me. But 
when he went on his adventure he did n’t think about 
me. He thought only of that little stupid boy, God 
bless him. And, oh, Mummie, I gave myself away — I 
got down to the beach just before Hughie went in, and 
I lost my head and I screamed out, ‘ Not you, Hughie : 
Seymour, Berts, anybody, but not you ! ’ It was n’t I 


282 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


who screamed; something inside me screamed, and 
the one who screamed was — was my love for Hughie, 
and I never knew of it. But inside me something 
swelled, and it burst. Yes : Hughie heard, I am sure, 
and Seymour heard, and I don’t care at all.” 

Nadine sat up, with a sort of unconscious pride in 
her erectness. 

“ I saw him just now,” she said, “ and he quite 
knew me, and asked if he was going to die. I told 
him ‘ he certainly was not; I could n’t spare him.’ ” 

Nadine gave a little croaking laugh. 

“ And he instantly went to sleep,” she said. 

The veracious historian is bound to state that this 
was an adventure absolutely after Dodo’s heart. All 
her life she had loved impulse, and disregarded its 
possibly appalling consequences. Never had she rea- 
soned before she acted, and she could almost have 
laughed for joy at these blind strokes of fate. Hugh’s 
splendid venture thrilled her, even as it thrilled Na- 
dine, and for the moment the result seemed negligible. 
A great thing had ‘ got done ’ in the world : now by 
all means let them hope for the best in its sequel, and 
do their utmost to bring about the best, not with a 
fainting or regretful heart, but with a heart that re- 
joiced and sang over the glory of the impetuous deed 
that brought about these dealings of love and life. 

Dodo’s eyes danced as she spoke, danced and were 
dim at the same time. 

“ Oh, Nadine, and you saw it! ” she said. “ How 
glorious for you to see that, and to know at the same 
moment that you loved him. And, my dear, if 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 283 

Hughie is to die, you must thank God for him without 
any regret. There is nothing to regret. And if he 
lives — ” 

“ Oh, Mama, one thing at a time,” said Nadine. 
“If he only lives, if only I am going to be allowed 
to take care of him, and to do what can be done.” 

She paused a moment. 

“ I am so glad you have come,” she said ; “ it was 
dear of you to start at once like that. Did Papa Jack 
want you not to go ? ” 

“ My dear, he hurried me off to that extent that I 
left the only bag that mattered behind.” 

“ That was nice of him. They have been so hope- 
less, all of them here, because they did n’t under- 
stand. Berts has been looking like a funeral all day, 
the sort with plumes. And Edith has been running 
in and out with soup for me, soup and mince and 
glasses of port I think — I think Seymour understood 
though, because he was quite cheerful and normal. 
Oh, Mama, if Hughie only lives, I will marry Sey- 
mour as a thank-offering.” 

Dodo looked at her daughter in amazement. 

“ Not if Seymour understands,” she said. 

Nadine frowned. 

“ It ’s the devil’s own mess,” she observed. 

“ But the devil never cleans up his messes,” said 
Dodo. “ That ’s what we learn by degrees. He 
makes them, and we clean them up. More or less, that 
is to say.” 

She paused a moment, and flung the spirit of her 
speech from her. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


284 

“ I don’t mean that,” she said. “ It is truer to say 
that God makes beautiful things, and we spoil them. 
And then He makes them beautiful again. It is only 
people who can’t see at all, that see the other aspect 
of it. I think they call them realists — I know it 
ends in ‘ ist.’ But it does n’t matter what you call 
them. They are wrong. We have got to hold our 
hearts high, and let them beat, and let ourselves enjoy 
and be happy and taste things to the full. It is easier 
to be miserable, my dear, for most people. We are 
the lucky ones. Oh, if I had been a charwoman, like 
that thing in the play, with a husband who stole and 
was sent to prison, I should have found something 
to be happy about. Probably a large diamond in the 
grate, which I should have sold without being traced.” 

These remarkable statements were not made with- 
out purpose. Dodo knew quite well that courage and 
patience and cheerfulness would be needed by Nadine, 
and she was willing to talk the most outrageous non- 
sense to give the sense of vitality to her, to make her 
see that no great happening like this, whatever the end, 
was a thing to moan and brood over. It must be 
taken with much more than resignation — a quality 
which she despised — and with hardly less than gaiety. 
Such at any rate was her private human gospel, which 
she found had not served her so badly. 

“ I have quite missed my vocation,” she said. “ I 
ought to have been bom in poverty-stricken and crim- 
inal classes to show the world that being hungry does 
not make you unhappy any more than having three 
diamond tiaras makes you happy. You ’ve got that 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


285 

birthright, Nadine, live up to it. Never anticipate 
trouble, and if it comes embrace and welcome it: it is 
part of life, and thus it becomes your friend. Oh, I 
wish I had been here this morning! I would have 
shouted for glee to see that darling Hughie go churn- 
ing out to sea. I am jealous of you. Just think: if 
Papa Jack had come a-wooing of you, as I really 
thought he might be doing in the summer, you would 
have married him and I should be looking after 
Hughie. Is n’t that like me ? I want everybody’s 
good times myself.” 

These amazing statements were marvelously suc- 
cessful. 

“ I won’t give my good time away even to you,” said 
Nadine. 

“ No, you are sharper than a serpent’s tooth. Now, 
darling, we will go very quietly along the passage, and 
just see if Hughie is asleep. I should so like to wake 
him up — I know he is asleep — in order to tell him 
how splendid it all is. Don’t be frightened : I ’m not 
going to. We will just go to the door, and that 
enormous nurse whom I saw peering over the banis- 
ters, will tell us to go away. And then I shall go to 
dress for dinner, and you will too — ” 

“ Oh, Mama, I can’t come down to dinner,” said 
Nadine. 

“ Yes, dear, you can and you will. There ’s going 
to be no sadness in my house. If you don’t, I shall 
send Edith up to you with mince and her ’cello 
and soup. Oh, Nadine, and it was all just for a little 
stupid boy, who very likely would have been better 


286 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


dead. He will now probably grow up, and be an 
anxiety to his parents, if he ’s got any — they usually 
have n’t — and come to a bad and early end. What a 
great world!” 


CHAPTER XI 


N ADINE enquired at Hugh’s door again that 
night before she went to bed, and found that 
he was still asleep. She had promised her mother 
not to sit up, but as she undressed she almost smiled 
at the uselessness of going to bed, so impossible did 
it seem that sleep should come near her. After her 
one outburst of crying, she had felt no further agita- 
tion, for something so big and so quiet had entered 
her heart that all poignancy of anxiety and suspense 
were powerless to disturb it. As has been said, it 
was scarcely even whether Hugh lived or died that 
mattered: the only thing that mattered was Hugh. 
Had she been compelled to say whether she believed 
he would live or not, she would have given the nega- 
tive. And yet there was a quality of peace in her 
that could not be shaken. It was a peace that hum- 
bled and exalted her. It wrapped her round very 
close, and yet she looked up to it, as to a mountain- 
peak on which dawn has broken. 

Despite her conviction that sleep was impossible, she 
had hardly closed her eyes, when it embraced and 
swallowed up all her consciousness. This cyclone of 
emotion, in the center of which dwelt the windless 
calm, had utterly tired her out, though she was una- 
ware of fatigue, and her rest was dreamless. Then 
287 


288 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 

suddenly she was aware that there was light in the 
room, and that she was being spoken to, and she passed 
from unconsciousness back to the full possession of 
her faculties, as swiftly as they had been surrendered. 
She found Dodo bending over her. 

“ Come, my darling,” she said. 

Nadine had no need to ask any question, but as she 
put on her slippers and dressing-gown Dodo spoke 
again. 

“ He has been awake for an hour and asking for 
you,” she said. “ The nurse and the doctor are with 
him: they think you had better come. It is possible 
that if he sees you there, he may go off to sleep again. 
But it is possible — you are not afraid, darling? ” 

Nadine’s mouth quivered into something very like 
a smile. 

“ Afraid of Hughie ? ” she asked. 

They went up the stairs, and along the passage to- 
gether. The moon that last night had been hidden 
by the tempest of storm-clouds, or perhaps blown away 
from the sky by the wind, now rode high and cloud- 
lessly amid a multitude of stars. No wind moved 
across those ample floors: only from the beach they 
heard the plunge and thunder of the sea that could not 
so easily resume its tranquillity. The moonlight came 
through the window of Hugh’s room also, making on 
the floor a shadow-map of the bars. 

He was lying again with his face towards the door, 
but now his eyes were vacantly open, and his whole 
face had changed. There was an agony of weariness 
over it, and from his eyes there looked out a dumb, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 289 

unavailing rebellion. Before they had got to the door 
they had heard a voice inside speaking, a voice that 
Nadine did not recognize. It kept saying over and 
over again, “ Nadine, Nadine.” 

As she came across the room to the bed, he looked 
straight at her, but it was clear he did not see her, and 
the monotonous, unrecognizable voice went on saying, 
“ Nadine, Nadine.” 

The doctor was standing by the head of the bed, 
looking intently at Hugh, but doing nothing : the nurse 
was at the foot. 

He signed to Nadine to come, and took a step to- 
wards her. 

“ You Ve got to make him feel you are here,” he 
said. Then with his hand he beckoned to the nurse 
and to Dodo, to stand out of sight of Hugh, so that 
by chance he might think himself alone with the 
girl. 

Nadine knelt down on the floor, so that her face was 
close to those unseeing eyes, and the mouth that bab- 
bled her name. And the great peace was with her 
still. She spoke in her ordinary natural voice without 
tremor. 

“ Yes, Hughie, yes,” she said. “ Don’t go on call- 
ing me. Here I am. What ’s the use of calling now? 
I came as soon as I knew you wanted me.” 

“ Nadine, Nadine,” said Hughie, in the same un- 
meaning monotone. 

“ Hughie, you are quite idiotic! ” she said. “As if 
you did n’t know in your own heart that I would al- 
ways come when you wanted me. I always would, my 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


290 

dear. You need never be afraid that I shall leave you. 
I am yours, don’t you see ? ” 

“ Nadine, Nadine,” said Hugh. 

Nadine’s whole soul went into her words. 

“ Hughie, you are not with me yet,” she said. “ I 
want you, too, and I mean to have you. I did n’t know 
till to-day that I wanted you, and now I can’t do with- 
out you. Hughie, do you hear?” she said. “ Oh, 
answer me, Hughie dear ! ” 

There was dead silence. Then Hugh gave a great 
sigh. 

“ Nadine! ” he said. But it was Hugh’s voice that 
spoke then. 

She bent forward. 

“ Oh, Hughie, you have come then,” she said. 
“ Welcome; you don’t know how I wanted you! ” 

“ Yes, I ’m here all right,” said Hugh in a voice 
scarcely audible. “ But I ’m so tired. It ’s horrible ; 
it ’s like death ! ” 

Nadine gave her little croaking laugh. 

“ It is n’t like anything of the kind,” she said. “ But 
of course you are tired. Would n’t it be a good thing 
to go to sleep ? ” 

" I don’t know,” said Hugh. 

“ But I do. I ’m tired too, Hughie, awfully tired. 
If I leaned my head back against your bed I should go 
to sleep too.” 

“ Nadine, it is you?” said Hugh. 

“ Oh, my dear ! What other girl could be with 
you ? ” 

“ No, that ’s true. Nadine, would it bore you to 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


291 

stop with me a bit? We might talk afterwards, 
when — when you ’ve had a nap.” 

“ That will be ripping,” said Nadine, assuming a 
sleepy voice. 

There was silence for a little. Then once again, 
but in his own voice, Hugh spoke her name. This 
time she did not answer, and she felt his hand move 
till it rested against her plaited hair. 

Then in the silence Nadine became conscious of an- 
other noise regular and slow as the faint hoarse thun- 
der of the sea, the sound of quiet breathing. After 
a while the doctor came round the head of the bed. 

“ We can manage to wrap you up, and make you 
fairly comfortable,” he whispered. “ I think he has 
a better chance of sleeping if you stop there.” 

The light and radiance in Nadine’s eyes were a 
miracle of beauty, like some enchanted dawn rising 
over a virgin and unknown land. She smiled her un- 
mistakable answer, but did not speak, and presently 
Dodo returned with pillows and blankets, which she 
spread over her and folded round her. 

“ The nurse will be in the next room,” said the doc- 
tor; “call her if anything is wanted.” 

Dodo and the doctor went back to their rooms, and 
Nadine was left alone with Hugh. That night was 
the birthnight and the bridal-night of her soul: there 
was it born, and through the long hours of the winter 
night it watched beside its lover and its beloved, in 
that stillness of surrender to and absorption in an- 
other, that lies beyond and above the unrest of pas- 
sion amid the snows and sunshine of the uttermost 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


292 

regions to which the human spirit can aspire. She 
knew nothing of the passing of the hours, nor for a 
long time did any thought or desire of sleep come 
near her eyelids, but the dim room became to her the 
golden island of which once in uncomprehending 
mockery she had spoken to Hugh. She knew it to 
be golden now, and so far from being unreal, there 
was nothing in her experience so real as it. 

She could just turn her head without disturbing 
Hugh’s hand that lay on her plaited hair, and from 
time to time she looked round at him. His face still 
wore the sunken pallor of exhaustion, but as his sleep, 
so still and even-breathing, began to restore the low- 
ebb of his vital force, it seemed to Nadine that the 
darkness of the valley of the shadow, to the entrance 
of which he had been so near, cleared off his face as 
eclipse passes from the moon. How near he had 
been, she guessed, but it seemed to her that for the 
present his face was set the other way. She knew, 
too, that it was she who had had the power to make 
him look life-wards again, and the knowledge filled 
her with a sort of abasing pride. He had answered 
to her voice when he was past all other voices, and 
had come back in obedience to it. 

She did not and she could not yet be troubled with 
the thought of anything else besides the fact that 
Hugh lived. As far as was known yet, he might 
never recover his activity of movement again, and years 
of crippled life were all that lay in front of him; 
but in the passing away of the immediate imminent 
fear, she could not weigh or even consider what that 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


293 

would mean. Similarly the thought of Seymour lay 
for the present outside the focus of her mind: every- 
thing but the fact that Hugh lived was blurred and 
had wavering outlines. As the hours went on the 
oblongs of moonshine on the floor moved across the 
room, narrowing as they went. Then the moon sank 
and the velvet of the cloudless sky grew darker, and 
the stars more luminous. One great planet, tremulous 
and twinkling, made a glory beside which all the lesser 
lights paled into insignificance. No wind stirred in 
the great halls of the night, the moans and yells of 
its unquiet soul were still, and the boom of the surf 
grew ever less sonorous, like the thunder of a re- 
treating storm. Occasionally the night-nurse ap- 
peared at the doorway of the room adjoining, where 
she sat, and as often Nadine looked up at her smil- 
ing. Once, very softly, she came round the head of 
the bed, and looked at Hugh, then bent down towards 
the girl. 

“ Won’t you get some sleep ? ” she said, and Na- 
dine made a little gesture of raised eyebrows and parted 
hands that was characteristic of her. 

“ I don’t know,” she whispered. “ Perhaps not. 
I don’t want to.” 

Then her solitary night vigil began again, and it 
seemed to her that she would not have bartered a 
minute of it for the best hour that her life had known 
before. The utter peace and happiness of it grew as 
the night went on, for still close to her head there 
came the regular uninterrupted breathing, and the 
weight, just the weight of a hand absolutely relaxed, lay 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


294 

on her hair. Not the faintest stir of movement other 
than those regular respirations came from the bed, and 
all the laughter and joy of which her days had been full 
was as the light of the remotest of stars compared to 
the glorious planet that sang in the windless sky, when 
weighed against the joy that that quiet breathing gave 
her. She did not color her consciousness with hope, 
she did not illuminate it by prayer ; there was no room 
in her mind for anything except the knowledge that 
Hugh slept and lived. 

It was now near the dawning of the winter day; 
the stars were paling in the sky, and the sky grew 
ensaffroned with the indescribable hue that heralds 
day. Footfalls, muffled and remote, began to stir in 
the house, and far away there came the sound of crow- 
ing cocks, faint but exultant, hailing the dawn. About 
that time, Nadine looked round once more at Hugh, 
and saw in the pallid light of morning that the change 
she had noticed before was more distinct. There had 
come back to his face something of the firm softness 
of youth, there had been withdrawn from it the droop 
and hardness of exhaustion. And turning again, she 
gave one sigh and fell fast asleep. 

Lover and beloved they lay there sleeping, while 
the dawn brightened in the sky, she leaning against 
the bed where he was stretched, he with his hand on 
her hair. And strangely, the moment that she slept, 
their positions seemed to be reversed, and Hugh in 
his sleep appeared unconsciously to keep watch over 
and guard her, though all night she had been awake 
for him. Once her head slipped an inch or two, so 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 295 

that his hand no longer lay on her hair, but it seemed 
as if that movement reached down to him fathom- 
deep in his slumber and immediately afterwards his 
hand, which had lain so motionless and inert all night, 
moved, as if to a magnet, after that bright hair, seek- 
ing and finding it again. And dawn brightened into 
day, and the sun leaped up from his lair in the East, 
and still Nadine slept, and Hugh slept. It was as if 
until then the balance of vitality had kept the girl 
awake to pour into him of her superabundance: now 
she was drained, and sleep with the level stroke of 
his soft hand across the furrows of trouble and the 
jagged edges of injury and exhaustion comforted both 
alike. 

It had been arranged after these events of storm 
that the party should disperse, and Dodo went to early 
breakfast downstairs with her departing guests, who 
were leaving soon after. But first she went into the 
nurse’s room, next door to where Hugh lay, to make 
enquiries, and was taken by her to look into the sick- 
room. With daylight their sleep seemed only to have 
deepened: it was like the slumber of lovers who have 
been long awake in passion of mutual surrender, and 
at the end have fallen asleep like children, with mere 
effacement of consciousness. Nadine’s head was a 
little bowed forward, and her breath came not more 
evenly than his. It was the sleep of childlike content 
that bound them both, and bound them together. 

Dodo looked long, and then with redoubled pre- 
caution moved softly into the nurse’s room again, with 
mouth quivering between smiles and tears. 


296 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ My dear, I never saw anything so perfectly 
sweet,” she said. “ Do let them have their sleep out, 
nurse. And Nadine has slept in Hugh’s room all 
night. What ducks! Please God it shall so often 
happen again ! ” 

Nurse Bryerley was not unsympathetic, but she felt 
that explanations were needed. 

“ I understood the young lady was engaged to some 
one else,” she said. 

Dodo smiled. 

“ But until now no one has quite understoud the 
young lady herself,” she said. “ Least of all, has she 
understood herself. I think she will find that she is 
less mysterious now.” 

“ Mr. Graves will have to take some nourishment 
soon,” said Nurse Bryerley. 

Dodo considered. 

“ Then could you not give him his nourishment 
very cautiously, so that he will go to sleep again after- 
wards ? ” she asked. “ I should like them to sleep 
all day like that. But then, you see, nurse, I am a 
very odd woman. But don’t disturb them till you 
must. I think their souls are getting to know each 
other. That may not be scientific nursing, but I think 
it is sound nursing. It ’s too bad we can’t eternalize 
such moments of perfect equilibrium.” 

“ Certainly the young lady was awake till nearly 
dawn,” said Nurse Bryerley. “ It would n’t hurt her 
to have a good rest.” 

Dodo beamed. 

“ Oh, leave them as long as possible,” she said. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


297 

“ You have no idea how it warms my heart. There 
will be trouble enough when they awake.” 

Seymour was among those who were going by the 
early train, and when Dodo came down he had finished 
breakfast. He got up just as she entered. 

“ How is he ? ” he asked. 

Dodo’s warm approbation went out to him. 

“ It was nice of you to ask that first, dear Seymour,” 
she said. “ He is asleep : he has slept all night.” 

Seymour lit a cigarette. 

“ I asked that first,” he said, “ because it was a mix- 
ture of politeness and duty to do so. I suppose you 
understand.” 

Dodo took the young man by the arm. 

“ Come out and talk to me in the hall,” she said. 
“ Bring me a cup of tea.” 

The morning sunshine flooded the window-seat by 
the door, and Dodo sat down there for one moment’s 
thought before he joined her. But she found that no 
thought was necessary. She had absolutely made up 
her mind as to her own view of the situation, and 
with all the regrets in the world for him, she was 
prepared to support it. In a minute Seymour joined 
her. 

“ Nadine came down to the beach just before Hugh 
went in yesterday morning,” he said, “ and she called 
out — called ? — shouted out, ‘ Not you, Hughie : Sey- 
mour, Berts, anybody, but not you ! ’ There was no 
need for me to think what that meant.” 

Dodo looked at him straight. 

“ No, my dear, there was no need,” she said. 


29 8 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Then I have been a — a farcical interlude,” said 
he, not very kindly. “ You managed that farcical 
interlude, you know. You licensed it, so to speak, 
like the censor of plays.” 

“ Yes, I licensed it, you are quite right. But, my 
dear, I did n’t license it as a farce ; there you wrong 
me. I licensed it as what I hoped would be a very 
pleasant play. You must be just, Seymour: you 
did n’t love her then, nor she you. You were good 
friends, and there was no shadow of a reason to sup- 
pose that you would not pass very happy times to- 
gether. The great love, the real thing, is not given to 
everybody. But when it comes, we must bow to it. 
... It is royal.” 

All his flippancy and quickness of wit had gone 
from him. Next conversation remained only be- 
cause it was a habit. 

“ And I am royal,” he said. “ I love Nadine like 
that.” 

“ Then you know that when that regality comes,” 
she said quickly, “ it comes without control. It is 
the same with Nadine ; it is by no wish of hers that it 
came.” 

“ I must know that from Nadine,” he said. " I 
can’t take your word for it, or anybody’s except hers. 
She made a promise to me.” 

“ She cannot keep it,” said Dodo. “ It is an im- 
possibility for her. She made it under different con- 
ditions, and you put your hand to it under the same. 
And Nadine said you understood, and behaved so de- 
lightfully yesterday. All honor to you, since behind 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 299 

your behavior there was that knowledge, that roy- 
alty." 

“ I had to. But don’t think I abdicated. But she 
was in terrible distress, and really, Aunt Dodo, the 
rest of your guests were quite idiotic. Berts looked 
like a frog; he had the meaningless pathos of a frog 
on his silly face — ’’ 

“ Nadine said he looked like a funeral with plumes," 
Dodo permitted herself to interpolate. 

“ More like a frog. Edith kept pouring out glasses 
of port to take to Nadine, but I think she usually for- 
got and drank them herself. It was a lunatic asylum. 
OBut Nadine felt." 

“ Ah, my dear," said Dodo, with a movement of her 
hand on to his. 

Seymour quietly disengaged his own. 

“ Very gratifying," he said, “ but as I said, I take 
nobody’s word for it, except Nadine’s. She has got 
to tell me herself. Where is she? I have to go in 
five minutes, but to see her will still leave me four to 
spare. 

Dodo got up. 

" You shall see her," she said. “ But come quietly, 
because she is asleep." 

“If she is only to talk to me in her sleep began 
he. 

“ Come quietly," said Dodo. 

But all her pity was stirred, and as they went along 
the passage to Hugh’s room, she slipped her arm into 
his. She knew that her coup was slightly theatrical, 
but there seemed no better way of showing him. It 


3 oo DODO’S DAUGHTER 

might fail : he might still desire explanations, but it was 
worth trying. 

“ And remember I am sorry,” she said, “ and be 
sure that Nadine will be sorry.” 

“ Riddles,” said Seymour. 

“ Yes, my dear, riddles if you will,” said she. “ But 
you may guess the answer.” 

Dodo quietly turned the handle of the door into the 
nurse’s room, and entered with her arm still in his. 
She made a sign of silence, and took Seymour straight 
through into the sick-room. All was as she had left 
it a quarter-o f-an-hour ago; Nadine still slept and 
Hugh, in that same attitude of security and love. 
Her head was drooped ; she slept as only children and 
lovers sleep. But Dodo with all her intuition did not 
see as much as Seymour, who loved her, saw. The 
truth of it was branded into his brain, whereas it only 
shone in hers. She saw the situation : he felt it. 

Then with a signal of pressure on his arm, she led 
him out again. 

“ She has been there all night,” she said. “ She 
only fell asleep at dawn.” 

They were in the passage again before Seymour 
spoke. 

“ There is no need for me to awake her or talk to 
her,” he said. “ You were quite right. And I con- 
gratulate you on your ensemble. I should have guessed 
that it required most careful rehearsal. And I should 
have been wrong. And now, for God’s sake, don’t be 
kind and tender — ” 

He took his arm away from hers, feeling for her 


DODO'S DAUGHTER 


301 

then more resentment than he might feel against the 
footman who conveyed cold soup to him. He did 
not want the footman’s sympathy, nor did he want 
Dodo’s, 

“ And spare me your optimism,” he said. “ If you 
tell me it is all for the best, I shall scream. It is n’t 
for the best, as far as I am concerned. It is damned 
bad. I was a Thing, and Nadine made a man of 
me. Now she is tired of her handiwork, and says 
that I shall be a Thing again. And don’t tell me I 
shall get over it. The fact that I know I shall, makes 
your information, which was on the tip of your tongue, 
wanton and superfluous. But if you think I shall 
love Hugh, because he loves Nadine, you are utterly 
astray. I am not a child in a Sunday school, letting 
the teacher smack both sides of my face. I hate 
Hugh, and I am not the least touched by the dis- 
gusting spectacle you have taken me on tiptoe to see. 
They looked like two amorous monkeys in the monkey- 
house — ” 

Seymour suddenly paused and gasped. 

“ They did n’t,” he said. “ At any rate Nadine 
looked as I have often pictured her looking. The dif- 
ference is that it was myself, not Hugh, beside whom 
I imagined her falling asleep. That makes a lot of 
difference if you happen to be the person concerned. 
And now I hope the motor is ready to take me away, 
and many thanks for an absolutely damnable visit. 
Don’t look pained. It doesn’t hurt you as much as 
it hurts me. There is a real cliche to finish with.” 

Dodo’s coup had been sufficiently theatrical to sat- 


302 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

isfy her, but she had not reckoned with the possible 
savageness that it might arouse. Seymour’s temper, 
as well as his love, was awake, and she had not thought 
of the two as being at home simultaneously, but had 
imagined they played Box-and-Cox with each other 
in the minds of men. Here Box and Cox met, and 
they were hand-in-hand. He was convinced and an- 
gry: she had imagined he would be convinced and 
pathetic. With that combination she had felt her- 
self perfectly competent to deal. But his temper 
roused hers. 

“ You are at least interesting,” she said briskly, 
“ and I have enjoyed what you call your damnable 
visit as much as you. You seem to have behaved de- 
cently yesterday, but no doubt that was Nadine’s mis- 
take.” 

“ Not at all : it was mine,” he said. 

“ Which you now recognize,” said she. “ I am 
afraid you must be off, if you want to catch your train. 
Good-by.” 

“ Good-by,” said he. 

He turned from her at the top of the stairs, and 
went down a half-dozen of them. Then suddenly he 
turned back again. 

“ Don’t you see I ’m in hell ? ” he said. 

Dodo entirely melted at that, and ran down the 
stairs to him. 

“ Oh, Seymour, my dear,” she said. “ A woman’s 
pity can’t hurt you. Do accept it.” 

She drew that handsome tragical face towards her, 
and kissed him. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


303 

“ Do you mind my kissing you?” she said. 
“ There ’s my heart behind it. There is, indeed.” 

“ Thanks, Aunt Dodo,” he said. " And — and 
you might tell Nadine I saw her like that. I am not 
so very stupid. I understand: good-by.” 

“ And Hugh ? ” she asked, quite unwisely, but in 
that optimistic spirit that he had deprecated. 

“ Don’t strain magnanimity,” he said. “ It ’s qual- 
ity is not strained. Say good-by to Nadine for me. 
Say I saw her asleep, and did n’t disturb her. I never 
thought much of her intelligence, but she may under- 
stand that. She will have to tell me what she means 
to do. That I require. At present our wedding-day 
is fixed.” 

Seymour broke off suddenly and ran downstairs 
without looking back. 

Dodo was quite sincerely very sorry for him, but 
almost the moment he had gone she ceased to think 
about him altogether, for there were so many soul- 
absorbing topics to occupy her, and forgetting she had 
had no breakfast, she went to Edith’s room (Edith 
alone had not the slightest intention of going away) to 
discuss them. Her optimism was luckily quite incur- 
able : she could not look on the darker aspect of affairs 
for more than a minute or two. She found Edith 
breakfasting in bed, with a large fur cape flung over 
her shoulders. Her breakfast had been placed on a 
table beside her, but for greater convenience she had 
disposed the plates round her, on her counterpane. 
There were also disposed there sheets of music-paper, 
a pen and ink-bottle, and a box of cigarettes. The 


3 04 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

window was wide open, and as Dodo entered the 
draught caused the music paper to flutter, and Edith 
laid hasty restraining hands on it, and screamed with 
her mouth full. 

“ Shut the door quickly ! ” she cried. “ And then 
come and have some breakfast, Dodo. I don’t think 
I shall get up to-day. I have been composing since six 
this morning, and if I get up the thread may be entirely 
broken. Beethoven worked at the C minor Symphony 
for three days and nights without eating, sleeping, or 
washing.” 

“ I see you are eating,” remarked Dodo. “ I hope 
that won’t prevent your giving us another C minor.” 

“ The C minor is much over-rated work,” said 
Edith; “it is commonplace melodically, and clumsily 
handled. If I had composed it, I should not be very 
proud of it.” 

“ Which is a blessing you did n’t, because then you 
would have composed something of which you were 
not proud,” said Dodo, ringing the bell. “ Yes, I 
shall have some breakfast with you. Oh, Edith, 
everything is so interesting, and Hughie has slept all 
night, and Nadine with him. They are sleeping now, 
Nadine on the floor half-sitting up with her head 
against the bed, looking too sweet for anything. And 
poor dear Seymour has just gone away. I took him 
in to see them by way of breaking it to him. Whoever 
guessed that he would fall in love with her ? It is very 
awkward, for I thought it would be such a nice sensible 
marriage. And now of course there will be no mar- 
riage at all.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


305 

At this moment the bell was answered, and Edith 
in trying to prevent her music-paper from practising 
aviation, upset the ink-bottle. Several minutes were 
spent in quenching the thirst of sheets of blotting paper 
at it, as you water horses when their day’s work is over. 

“ One of the faults of your mind, Dodo,” said 
Edith, as this process was going on, “ is that you don’t 
concentrate enough. You have too many objects in 
focus simultaneously. Now my success is due to the 
fact that I have only one in focus at a time. For in- 
stance this Stygian pool of ink does not distress me 
in the slightest — ” 

“ No, darling, it ’s not your counterpane,” said 
Dodo. 

“ It would n’t distress me if it was. But if I opened 
your mind I should find Hugh’s recovery, Nadine’s 
future, and your baby in about equally vivid colors, 
and all in sharp outline. Also you make too many 
plans for other people. Do leave something to Provi- 
dence sometimes.” 

“ Oh, I leave lots,” said Dodo. “ I only try to touch 
up the designs now and then. Providence is often 
rather sketchy and unfinished. But yesterday’s design 
was absolutely wonderful. I can hardly even be sorry 
for Hugh.” 

Edith shook her head. 

“You are quite incorrigible,” she said. “Provi- 
dence sent what was clearly intended to be a terrible 
event, but you see all sorts of glories in it. I don’t 
thing it is very polite. It is like laughing at a ghost 
story instead of being terrified.” 


3 o6 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Dodo’s breakfast had been brought in, and she fell 
to it with an excellent appetite. 

“ There is nothing like scenes before breakfast to 
make one hungry,” she said. “ Think how hungry a 
murderer would be if he was taken out to be hanged 
before breakfast, and then given his breakfast after- 
wards. I had a scene with Seymour, you know. I 
am very sorry for him, but somehow he does n’t seem 
to matter. He lost his temper, which I rather re- 
spected, and showed me he had an ideal. That I re- 
spect too. I remember the struggles I used to go 
through in order to get one.” 

“ Were they successful? ” asked Edith. 

“ Only by a process of elimination. I did every- 
thing that I wanted, and found it was a mistake. So, 
last of all, I married Jack. What a delightful life I 
have led, and how good this bacon is. Don’t you 
think David is a very nice name? I am going to call 
my baby David.” 

“ It may be a girl,” said Edith. 

“ Then I shall call it Bathsheba,” said Dodo without 
pause. “ Or do I mean Beersheba? Bath, I think. 
Edith, why is it that when I am most anxious and full 
of cares, I feel it imperative to talk tommy-rot? I ’m 
sure there is enough to worry me into a grave if not 
a vault, between Seymour and Nadine and Hugh. 
But after all, one need n’t worry about Nadine. It 
is quite certain that she will do as she chooses, and if 
she wants to marry Hugh with both arms in slings, 
and two crutches, and a truss and one of those sort of 
scrapers under one foot she certainly will. I brought 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 307 

her up on those lines, to know her own mind, and then 
do what she wanted. It has been a failure hitherto, 
because she has never really wanted anything. But 
now I think my system of education is going to be 
justified. I am also suffering from reaction. Last 
night I thought our dear Hughie was dying, and I am 
perfectly convinced this morning that he isn’t. So, 
too, I am sure, is Nadine : otherwise she could n’t 
have fallen asleep like that. And what Hughie did 
was so splendid. I am glad God made men like that, 
but it does n’t prevent my eating a huge breakfast and 
talking rot. I hope you don’t mean to go away. It 
is so dull to be alone in the house with two young 
lovers, even when one adores them both.” 

“ Are n’t you getting on rather quick, Dodo? ” asked 
Edith. 

“ Probably : but Seymour is congedie — how do you 
say it — spun, dismissed, and quite certainly Nadine 
has fallen in love with Hugh. There is n’t time to be 
slow, nowadays. If you are slow you are left gasp- 
ing on the beach like a fish. I still swim in the great 
waters, thank God.” 

Dodo got up, and her mood changed utterly. She 
was never other than genuine, but it had pleased Na- 
ture to give her many facets, all brilliant, but all reflect- 
ing different-colored lights. 

“ Oh, my dear, life is so short,” she said, “ and every 
moment should be so precious to everybody. I hate 
going to sleep, for fear I may miss something. Fancy 
waking in the morning and finding you had missed 
something, like an earthquake or suffragette riot ! My 


308 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

days are reasonably full, but I want them to be un- 
reasonably full. And just now Jack keeps saying, 
‘ Do rest: do lie down: do have some beef-tea.’ Just 
as if I did n’t know what was good for David ! Edith, 
he is going to be such a gay dog ! All the girls and all 
the women are going to fall desperately in love with 
him. He is going to marry when he is thirty, and 
not a day before, and he will be absolutely simple and 
unspoiled and a wicked little devil on his marriage 
morning. And then all his energies will be concen- 
trated on one point, and that will be his wife. He will 
utterly adore her, and think of nobody else except me. 
I shall be seventy-four, you perceive, at that time, and 
so I shall be easy to please. The older one gets the 
easier one is to please. Already little things please me 
quite enormously, and big ones, as you also perceive, 
make me go off my head. Oh, I am sure heaven will 
be extremely nice, if I ever die, which God forbid; 
but however nice it is, it won’t be the same as this. 
You agree there I know; you want to make all the 
music you can first — ” 

“ As a protest against what seems to be the music 
of heaven,” said Edith firmly, “ if we may judge by 
hymn tunes and 1 chants, and the first act of Parsifal, 
and I suppose the last of Faust, and Handel’s ora- 
torios. It is very degrading stuff; all the changes 
of key are childishly simple, and the proportion of 
full closes is nearly indecent. And I want another 
ink-bottle.” 

Edith whistled a short phrase on her teeth, as a 
gentle hint to her hostess. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 309 

“ It ’s for the flutes,” she said, “ and the ’cellos take 
it up two octaves lower.” 

She grabbed at her music-paper. 

“ Then the horns start it again in the subdominant,” 
she said, “ and all the silly audience will think they are 
merely out of tune. That ’s because they got what 
they didn’t expect. To be any good, you must sur- 
prise the ear. I ’ll surprise them. But I want another 
ink-bottle. And may I have lunch in my room, Dodo, 
if necessary? I don’t know when I shall be able to 
get up.” 

Dodo was not attending in any marked manner. 

“We will all do what we choose,” she said geni- 
ally. 

“We will be a sort of harmless Medmenham Abbey. 
You shall spill all the ink you please, and Nadine shall 
marry Hugh, who will get quite well, and I shall go 
and order dinner and see if Nadine is awake. I am 
afraid I am rather fatuously optimistic this morning, 
like Mr. Chesterton, and that is always so depressing, 
both to other people at the time, and to oneself sub- 
sequently. Dear me, what a charming world if there 
was no such thing as reaction. As a matter of fact I 
do not experience much of it.” 

Edith gave a great sigh of relief as Dodo left the 
room, and concentrated herself with singular com- 
pleteness on the horn-tune in the subdominant. She 
was quite devoted to Dodo, but the horn-tune was in 
focus just now, and she knew if Dodo had stopped any 
longer, she would have become barely tolerant of her 
presence. Shortly afterwards the fresh supply of ink 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


3 TO 

came also, and Edith proceeded straight up into the 
seventh heaven of her own compositions, which, good 
or bad, were perfection itself to their author. 

Dodo found a packet of letters waiting for her aad 
among them a telegram from Miss Grantham saying, 
“Deeply grieved. Can I do anything?” This she 
swiftly answered, replying, “ Darling Granite. Noth- 
ing whatever,” and went to Nadine’s room, where 
she found Nadine, half-dressed, rosy from her bath, 
and radiant of spirit. 

“ Oh, Mama, I never had such a lovely night,” she 
said. “ How delicious it must be to be married ! I 
didn’t wake till half-an-hour ago, and simultaneously 
Hughie woke, which looks as if we suited each other, 
does n’t it ? And then the doctor came in, and looked 
at him, and said he was much stronger, much fuller of 
vitality for his long sleep, and he congratulated me on 
having made him sleep. And the nurse told me the 
first great danger, that he would not rally after the 
shock of the operation, was over. As far as that goes 
he will be all right.” 

Nadine kissed her mother, and clung round her neck, 
dewy-eyed. 

“ I ’m not going to think about the future,” she said. 
“ Sufficient to the day is the good thereof. It is 
enough this morning that Hughie has got through the 
night and is stronger. If I had been given any wish 
to be fulfilled I should have chosen that. And if on the 
top of that I had been given another, it would have 
been that I should have helped towards it, which I 
suppose is the old Eve coming in. I think I had better 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 31 1 

finish dressing, Mama, instead of babbling. Have 
you had breakfast? ” 

“ Yes, dear, I had it with Edith. She is in bed 
making tunes and pouring ink over the counterpane, 
and not minding.” 

Nadine’s face clouded for a moment, in spite of the 
accomplishment of her wishes. 

“ And then I must see Seymour,” she said. “ It is 
no use putting that off. But, oh, Mama, to think 
that till yesterday I was willing to marry him, with 
Hugh in the world all the time. Whatever happens to 
Hugh, I can’t marry him, Seymour, I mean, if the 
ridiculous English pronouns admit of any meaning; 
and I must tell him.” 

“ Seymour left half an hour ago,” said Dodo. “ But 
there ’s no need for you to tell him. I took him into 
Hugh’s room and he saw you asleep. He under- 
stands. He could n’t very well help understanding, 
darling. He told me he understood before, when you 
called out to Hugh not to attempt the rescue. But 
he only understood it pretty well, as the ordinary person 
says he understands French. But when he saw you 
asleep, not exactly in Hugh’s arms, but sufficiently 
close, he understood it like a real native, poor boy ! ” 

“ What did he do? ” asked Nadine. 

“ He behaved very rightly and properly, and lost his 
temper with me, just as I lose my temper with the 
porter at the station if I miss my train. I had been 
just porter to him. He thanked me for a horrid visit, 
only he called it damnable, and so I lost my temper, 
too, and we had a few flowers of speech on the stair- 


312 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

case, not big ones, but just promising buds. And then, 
poor chap, he came back to me, and told me he was in 
hell, and I kissed him, and he did n’t seem to mind 
much, and I suppose he caught his train. Otherwise he 
would have been back by now. I ’m exceedingly 
sorry for him, Nadine, and you must write him a sweet 
little letter, which won’t do any good at all, but it ’s one 
of the things you have to do. Darling, I wonder if 
jilting runs in families like consumption and red faces. 
You see I jilted my darling Jack, to marry into your 
family. But you must write the sweet little letter I 
spoke of, because you are sorry, only you could n’t 
help it.” 

“Did you write a sweet little letter under — un- 
der the same circumstances to Papa Jack?” asked 
Nadine. 

“ No, dear, because I had n’t got anybody exceed- 
ingly wise to give me that good advice,” said Dodo. 
“ Also, because I was a little brute there is no reason 
why you should be.” 

“ Perhaps it runs in the family, too,” suggested 
Nadine. 

“ Then the quicker it runs out of the family the 
better. Besides you are sorry for Seymour.” 

Nadine opened her hands wide. 

“Am I? I hope so,” she said. “But if you are 
quite full of gladness for one thing, Mama, it is a 
little difficult to find a corner for anything else.” 

Dodo turned to leave the room. 

“Anywhere will do. Just under the stairs,” she 
said. “ I don’t want to put it in the middle of the 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


3i3 

drawing-room. After all, darling, you propose to 
jilt him.” 

“ There ’s something in that,” said Nadine. “ Oh, 
Mama, I used not to have any heart at all, and now 
that I ’ve got one it does n’t belong to me.” 

“No woman’s heart belongs to her,” said Dodo. 
“If it belongs to her, it is n’t a heart.” 

“ I should have thought that nonsense yesterday,” 
said Nadine. “Oh, wait while I finish dressing; I 
shan’t be ten minutes. What meetings we have had 
in my lovely back room ! One, I remember so particu- 
larly. You and Esther and Berts all lay on my bed 
like sardines in evening dresses, and I had just refused 
to marry Hugh, who was playing billiards with Uncle 
Algie. Somehow the things like love and devotion 
seemed to me quite old-fashioned, or anyhow they 
seemed to me signs of age. They did, indeed. I 
thought a clear brain was infinitely preferable to a con- 
fused heart, especially if it belonged to somebody else. 
I ’m not used to it, Mama : it still seems to me very 
odd like a hat that does n’t fit. But it ’s a fact, and I 
suppose I shall grow into it, not that any one ever grew 
into a hat. But when Hugh swam out yesterday 
morning, something came tumbling down inside me. 
Or was it that only something cracked, like the shell 
of a nut? It does not much matter, so long as it is 
not mended again. But how queer that it should 
happen in a second, like that. I suppose time has 
nothing to do with what concerns one’s soul. I believe 
Plato says something about it. I don’t think I shall 
look it up. He wrote wonderfully, but when a thing 


314 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

happens to oneself, that seems to matter more than 

Plato’s reflections on the subject.” 

There was a short pause as Nadine brushed her 
teeth, but Dodo sitting on the unslept-in bed did not 
feel inclined to break it. She wondered whether a 
particular point in the situation would occur to Nadine, 
whether her illumination as regards a woman’s heart 
threw any light on that very different affair, a man’s 
heart. She was not left long in doubt. The question 
of a man’s heart was altogether unilluminated, and to 
Dodo there was something poignantly pathetic about 
Nadine’s blissful ignorance. She came and sat down 
on the bed close to her mother. 

“ Hughie will see I love him,” she said, “ because 
he won’t be able to help it. I shall just wait, oh, so 
happily, for him, to say again what he has so often 
said before. He will know my answer, before I give it 
him. I hope he will say it soon. Then we shall be 
engaged, and people who are engaged are a little freer, 
are n’t they, Mamma ? ” 

Dodo felt incapable of clouding that radiant face, 
for she knew in the days that were coming, all its radi- 
ance would be needed: not a single sparkle of light 
must be wasted. But it did not seem to her very likely 
that Hugh, whose joyous strength and splendid ac- 
tivity had been so often rejected by Nadine, would be 
likely to offer to her again what would be, in all prob- 
ability, but a crippled parody of himself. But her 
sense of justice told her that Nadine owed him all the 
strength and encouragement her eager vitality could 
give him. It was only fair that she should devote her- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 315 

self to him, and let him feel all the inspiration to live 
that her care of him could give him. But it seemed 
to her very doubtful if Hugh would consent, even if he 
perceived that it was love not warm friendship that 
she gave him, to let himself and his crippled body 
appeal to her. In days gone by, she would not marry 
him for love, and it seemed to Dodo that a real man, 
as Hugh was, would not allow her to marry him for 
pity. He had offered her his best, and she had refused 
it; it would not be surprising if he refused to offer her 
his worst. The joy that had inspired Dodo so that 
she had softly melted over the sight of Nadine asleep 
by Hugh, and had exultantly mopped up the spilt ink 
with Edith, suddenly evaporated, leaving her dry and 
cold. 

“ You must wait, Nadine,” she said. “ You must 
make no plans. Give Hughie your vitality, and don’t 
ask more.” 

She got up. 

“ Now, my darling, I shall go downstairs,” she said, 
“ and order your breakfast. You must be hungry. 
And then you can say your prayers, and breakfast 
will be ready.” 

Nadine, absorbed in her own thoughts, felt nothing 
of this. 

“ Prayers ? ” she said. “ Why I was praying all 
night till dawn. At least, I was wanting, just want- 
ing, and not for myself. Isn’t that prayers?” 

Dodo loved that: it was exactly what she meant in 
her inmost heart by prayers. She drew Nadine to her 
and kissed her. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


316 

“ Darling, you have said enough for a week,” she 
said, “ if not more. And you said them because you 
must, which is the only proper plan. If you don’t 
feel you must say your prayers, it is just as well not 
to say them at all. But you shall have breakfast, 
whether you feel you must or not. I say you must.” 


CHAPTER XII 


O NE morning a fortnight later, Jack, Dodo, and 
Edith were sitting together on the cliff above 
the bay, looking down to the sandy foreshore. Jack, 
finding that Dodo was obliged to stop at Meering with 
Nadine, had personally abandoned his third shooting- 
party, leaving Berts, whom he implicitly trusted to 
make himself and everybody else quite comfortable, 
in charge. Among the guests was Berts’ father, 
whom Berts apparently kept in his place. Jack had 
just told Dodo and Edith the contents of Berts’ letter, 
received that morning. All was going very well, but 
Berts had arranged that his father should escort two 
ladies of the party to see the interesting town of Lich- 
field one afternoon, instead of shooting the Warren 
beat, where birds came high and Berts’ father was 
worse than useless. But it was certain that he would 
enjoy Lichfield very much, and the shoot would be 
more satisfactory without him. If his mother was 
still at Meering, Berts sent his love, and knew she 
would agree with him. 

Edith just now, working her way through the entire 
orchestra, was engaged on the cor anglais which, while 
Hugh was still so ill, Dodo insisted should not be 
played in the house. It gave rather melancholy notes, 
and was productive of moisture. But she finished a 
317 


318 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

passage which seemed to have no end, before she ac- 
knowledged these compliments. Then she emptied the 
cor anglais into the heather. 

“ Poor Bertie is a drone,” she said; “ he never thinks 
it worth while to do anything well. Berts is better : 
he thinks it worth while to sit on his father really 
properly. I thought my energy might wake Bertie 
up, and that was chiefly why I married him. But it 
only made him go to sleep. Lichfield is about his 
level. I don’t know anything about Lichfield, and I 
don’t know much about Bertie. But they seem to me 
rather sutiable. And much more can be done with the 
cor anglais than Wagner ever imagined. The solo in 
Tristan is absolute child’s play. I could perform it 
myself with a week’s practice.” 

Dodo had been engaged in a small incendiary opera- 
tion among the heather, with the match with which she 
had lit her cigarette. For the moment it seemed that 
her incendiarism was going to fulfil itself on larger 
lines than she had intended. 

“ Jack, I have set fire to Wales, like Lloyd George,” 
she cried. “ Stamp on it with your great feet. What 
great large strong feet! How beautiful are the feet 
of them that put out incendiary attempts in Wales! 
About Bertie, Edith, if you will stop playing that lam- 
entable flute for a moment — ” 

“ Flute?” asked Edith. 

“ Trombone, if you like. The point is that your 
vitality has n’t inspired Bertie ; it has only drained 
him of his. You set out to give him life, and you 
have become his vampire. I don’t say it was your 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


319 

fault: it was his misfortune. But Berts is calm 
enough to keep your family going. The real ques- 
tion is about mine. Yes, Jack, that was where Hughie 
went into the sea, when the sea was like Switzerland. 
And those are the reefs, before which, though it ’s not 
grammatical, he had to reach the boat. He swam 
straight out from where your left foot is pointing. A 
Humane Society medal came for him yesterday, and 
Nadine pinned it upon his bed-clothes. He says it 
is rot, but I think he rather likes it. She pinned it on 
while he was asleep, and he did n’t know what it 
meant. He thought it was the sort of thing that they 
give to guards of railway trains. The dear boy was 
rather confused, and asked if he had joined the station- 
masters.” 

Jack shaded his eyes from the sun. 

“ And a big sea was running? ” he asked. 

“ But huge. It broke right up to the cliffs at the 
ebb. And into it he went like a duck to water.” 

Edith got up. 

“ I have heard enough of Hugh’s trumpet blown,” 
she said. 

“ And I have heard enough of the cor anglais,” said 
Dodo. “ Dear Edith, will you go away and play it 
there? You see, darling, Jack came out this morning 
to talk to me, and I came out to talk to him. Or we 
will go away if you like: the point is that somebody 
must.” 

“ I shall go and play golf,” said Edith with dig- 
nity. “ I may not be back for lunch. Don’t wait for 
me.” 


320 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Dodo was roused to reply to this monstrous recom- 
mendation. 

^ If I had been in the habit of waiting for you,” she 
said, “ I should still be where I was twenty years ago. 
You are always in a hurry, darling, and never in time.” 

“ I was in time for dinner last night,” said Edith. 

“ Yes, because I told you it was at eight, when it 
was really at half past.” 

Edith blew a melancholy minor phrase. 

“ Leit-motif,” she said, “ describing the treachery 
of a friend.” 

“ Tooty, tooty, tooty,” said Dodo cheerfully, “ de- 
scribing the gay impenitence of the same friend.” 

Edith exploded with laughter, and put the cor anglais 
into its green-baize bag. 

“ Good-by,” she said, “ I forgive you.” 

“ Thanks, darling. Mind you play better than any- 
body ever played before, as usual.” 

“ But I do,” said Edith passionately. 

Dodo leaned back on the springy couch of the 
heather as Edith strode down the hillside. 

“ It ’s not conceit,” she observed, “ but conviction, 
and it makes her so comfortable. I have got a certain 
amount of it myself, and so I know what it feels like. 
It was dear of you to come down, Jack, and it will be 
still dearer of you if you can persuade Nadine to go 
back with you to Winston.” 

“ But I don’t want to go back to Winston. Any- 
how, tell me about Nadine. I don’t really know any- 
thing more than that she has thrown Seymour over, 
and devotes herself to Hugh.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


32 1 

“ My dear, she has fallen head over ears in love 
with him.” 

“ You are a remarkably unexpected family,” Jack 
allowed himself to say. 

“Yes; that is part of our charm. I think some- 
where deep down she was always in love with him, but, 
so to speak, she could n’t get at it. It was like a seam 
of gold : you are n’t rich until you have got down 
through the rock. And Hugh’s adventure was a 
charge of dynamite to her; it sent the rock splintering 
in all directions. The gold lies in lumps before his 
eyes, but I am not sure whether he knows it is for 
him or not. He can’t talk much, poor dear; he is 
just lying still, and slowly mending, and very likely 
he thinks no more than that she is only sorry for him, 
and wants to do what she can. But in a fortnight 
from now comes the date when she was to have mar- 
ried Seymour. He can’t have forgotten that.” 

“ Forgotten? ” asked Jack. 

“ Yes ; he does n’t remember much at present. He 
had severe concussion as well as that awful breakage 
of the hip.” 

“ Do they think he will recover completely ?' ” asked 
Jack. 

“ They can’t tell yet. His little injuries have healed 
so wonderfully that they hope he may. They are more 
anxious about the effects of the concussion than the 
other. He seems in a sort of stupor still; he recog- 
nizes Nadine of course, but she has n’t, except on that 
first night, seemed to mean much to him.” 

“ What was that ? ” 


322 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ He so nearly died then. He kept calling for her 
in a dreadful strange voice, and when she came he 
did n’t know her for a time. Then she put her whole 
soul into it, the darling, and made him know her, and he 
went to sleep. She slept, or rather lay awake, all 
night by his bed. She saved his life, Jack; they all 
said so.” 

“ It seems rather perverse to refuse to marry him 
when he is sound, and the moment he is terribly in- 
jured to want to,” said Jack. 

“ My darling, it is no use criticizing people,” said 
Dodo, “ unless by your criticism you can change them. 
Even then it is a great responsibility. But you could 
no more change Nadine by criticizing her, than you 
could change the nature of the wildcat at the Zoo by 
sitting down in front of its cage, and telling it you 
did n’t like its disposition, and that it had not a good 
temper. You may take it that Nadine is utterly in 
love with him.” 

“ And as he has always been utterly in love with 
her, I don’t know why you want me to take Nadine 
away. Bells and wedding-cake as soon as Hugh can 
hobble to church.” 

“ Oh, Jack, you don’t see,” she said. “ If I know 
Hughie at all, he wouldn’t dream of offering himself 
to Nadine until it is certain that he will be an able- 
bodied man again. And she is expecting him to, and 
is worrying and wondering about it. Also, she is 
doing him no good now. It can’t be good for an 
invalid to have continually before him the girl to whom 
he has given his soul, who has persistently refused 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


323 

to accept it. It is true that they have exchanged souls 
now — as far as that goes my darling Nadine has so 
much the best of the bargain — but Hugh has to begin 
the — the negotiations, and he won’t, even if he sees 
that Nadine is a willing Barkis, until he knows he has 
something more than a shattered unmendable thing 
to offer her. Consequently he is silent, and Nadine 
is perplexed. I will go on saying it over and over 
again if it makes it any clearer, but if you understand, 
you may signify your assent in the usual manner. 
Clap your great hands and stamp your great feet : oh. 
Jack, what a baby you are ! ” 

“ Do you suppose she would come away ? ” said 
Jack, coughing a little at the dust his great feet had 
raised from the loose soil. 

“ Yes, if you can persuade her that her presence 
is n’t good for Hugh. So you will try ; that ’s all 
right. Nadine has a great respect for Papa Jack’s 
wisdom, and I can’t think why. I always thought a 
lot of your heart, dear, but very little of your head. 
You must n’t retort that you never thought much of 
either of mine, because it wouldn’t be manly, and I 
should tell you you were a coward as the Suffragettes 
do when they hit policemen in the face.” 

“ And why should it be I to do all this ? ” asked 
Jack. 

“ Because you are Papa Jack,” said Dodo, “ and 
a girl listens to a man when she would not heed a 
woman. Oh, you might tell her, which is probably 
true, that Edith is going away to-morrow, and you 
want somebody to take care of you at Winston. I 


324 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

think even Nadine would see that it would not quite do 
if she was left here alone with Hughie. At least it is 
possible she might see that: you could use it to help 
to preach down a stepdaugher’s heart. You must 
think of these things for yourself, though, because in 
my heart I am really altogether on Nadine’s side. I 
think it is wonderful that she should now be waiting 
so eagerly and humbly for Hugh, poor crippled Hugh, 
as he at present is, to speak. She has chosen the good 
part like Mary, and I want you for the present to take 
it away from her. It ’s wiser for her to go, but am 
I,” asked Dodo grammatically, “ to supply the ruthless 
foe, which is you, with guns and ammunition against 
my daughter ? ” 

“ You can’t take both sides,” remarked Jack. 

“ Jack, I wish you were a woman for one minute, 
just to feel how ludicrous such an observation is. Our 
lives — not perhaps Edith’s — are passed in taking both 
sides. My whole heart goes out to Hugh, who has 
been so punished for his gallant recklessness, and then 
the moment I say ‘ punished ’ I think of Nadine’s 
awakened love and shout, ‘No, I meant rewarded.’ 
Then I think of Nadine, and wonder if I could bear 
being married to a cripple, and simultaneously, now 
that she has shown she can love, I cannot bear the 
thought of her being married to anybody else. After 
all Nelson had only one eye and one arm, and though 
he was n’t exactly married to Lady Hamilton, I ’m 
sure she was divinely happy. But then, best of all, I 
think of Hugh making a complete recovery, and once 
more coming to Nadine with his great brown doggy 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 325 

eyes, and telling her .... Then for once I don’t 
take both sides, but only one, which is theirs, and if it 
would advance their happiness, I would even take 
away from poor little Seymour his jade and his 
Antoinette, which is all that Nadine left him with, 
without a single qualm of regret.” 

Jack considered this a moment. 

“ After all, she has left him where she found him,” 
said Jack, who had rather taken Edith’s view about 
their marriage. “ He had only his Antoinette and his 
jade when she accepted him, and until you make a 
further raid, he will have them still.” 

Dodo shook her head. 

“Jack, it is rather tiresome of you,” she said. 
“ You are making me begin to have qualms for Sey- 
mour. She had found his heart for him, you see, and 
now having taken everything out of it, she has gone 
away again, leaving him a cupboard as empty as 
Mother Hubbard’s.” 

“ He will put the jade back — and Antoinette,” said 
Jack hopefully. 

Dodo got up. 

“ That is what I doubt,” she said. “ Until we have 
known a thing, we can’t miss it. We only miss it 
when we have known it, and it is taken away, leaving 
the room empty. Then old things won’t always go 
back into their places again; they look shabby and 
uninteresting, and the room is spoiled. It is very 
unfortunate. But what is to happen when a girl’s 
heart is suddenly awakened? Is she to give it an 
opiate? What is the opiate for heart-ache? Surely 


326 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

not marriage with somebody different. Yet jilt is an 
ugly word.” 

Dodo looked at Jack with a sort of self-deprecation. 

“ Don’t blame Nadine, darling,” she said. “ She 
inherited it ; it runs in the family.” 

Jack jumped up, and took Dodo’s hands in his. 

“ You shall not talk horrible scandal about the 
woman I love,” he said. 

“ But it ’s true,” said Dodo. 

“ Therefore it is the more abominable of you to 
repeat it,” said he. 

But there was a certain obstinacy about Dodo that 
morning. 

“ I think it ’s good for me to keep that scandal alive 
in my heart,” she said. “ Use n’t the monks to keep 
peas in their boots to prevent them from getting too 
comfortable? ” 

“ Monks were idiots,” said Jack loudly, “ and any 
one less like a monk than you, I never saw. Monk 
indeed! Besides, I believe they used to boil the peas 
first.” 

Dodo’s face, which had been a little troubled, cleared 
considerably. 

“ That showed great commonsense,” she said. “ I 
don’t think they can have been such idiots. Jack, if 
I boil that pea, would you mind my still keeping it in 
my boot ? ” 

“ Rather messy,” said he. “ Better take it out. 
After all, you did really take it out when you mar- 
ried me.” 

Dodo raised her eyes to his. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 327 

“ David shall take it out,” she said. 

Jack had not at present heard of this nomenclature. 
In fact, it does him credit that he instantly guessed to 
whom allusion was being made. 

“ Oh, that ’s settled, is it ? ” he said. “ And now, 
David’s mother, give me a little news of yourself. 
Is all well ? ” 

Dodo’s mouth grew extraordinarily tender. 

“ Oh, so well, Jesse,” she said, “ so well! ” 

She was standing a foot or so above him, on the steep 
hillside, and bending down to him, kissed him, and 
was silent a moment. Then she decided swiftly and 
characteristically that a few words like those that had 
just passed between them were as eloquent as longer 
speeches, and became her more usual self again. 

“ You are such a dear, Jack,” she said, “ and I will 
forgive your dreadful ignorance of the name of 
David’s mother. Oh, look at the sea-gulls fishing for 
their lunch. Oh, for the wings of a sea-gull, not to 
fly away and be at rest at all, but to take me straight 
to the dining-room. And I feel certain Nadine will 
listen to you, and it would be a good thing to take her 
away for a little. She is living on her nerves, which is 
as expensive as eating pearls like Cleopatra.” 

“^Drinking,” said Jack. “ She dissolved them — ” 

“ Darling, vinegar does n’t dissolve pearls : it is a 
complete mistake to suppose it does. She took the 
pearls like a pill, and drank some vinegar afterwards. 
Jack, pull me up the hill, not because I am tired, but 
because it is pleasanter so. I am sorry you are going 
to-morrow, and I shall make love to Hughie after 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


328 

you ’ve gone and pretend it ’s you. I do pray Hughie 
may get quite well, and he and Nadine, and you and 
I all have our heart’s desire. Edith too: I hope she 
will write a symphony so beautiful that by common 
consent we shall throw away all the works of Bee- 
thoven and Bach and Brahms just as we throw away 
antiquated Bradshaws.” 

She was rather out of breath after delivering her- 
self of this series of remarkable statements, and Jack 
got in a word. 

“And who was David’s mother?” he asked, with 
a rather tiresome reversion to an abandoned topic. 

“ I don’t know or care,” said Dodo with dignity. 
“ But I ’m going to be.” 

It required all Jack’s wisdom to persuade Nadine to 
go away with him, more particularly because at the 
first opening of the subject, Edith, who was present, 
and whom Jack had unfortunately forgotten to take 
into his confidence, gave a passionate denial to the 
fact that she was departing also. But in the end 
she yielded, for during this last fortnight she had felt 
(as by the illumination of her love she could not help 
doing) that at present she ‘ meant ’ very little to 
Hugh. Her presence, which on that first critical 
night had not done less than set his face towards life 
instead of death, had, she felt, since then, dimly trou- 
bled and perplexed him. Every day she had thought 
that he would need her, but each day passed, and he still 
lay there, with a barrier between him and her. Yet 
any day he might want her, and she was loth to go. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


329 

But she knew how tired and overstrained she felt her- 
self, and the ingenious Papa Jack made use of this. 

“ You have given him all you can, my dear, for the 
present,” he said. “ Come away and rest, and — 
what is Dodo’s phrase? — fill your pond again. You 
mustn’t become exhausted; you will be so much 
wanted.” 

“ And I may come back if Hughie wants me? ” she 
asked. 

That was easy to answer. If Hugh really wanted 
her, the difficult situation solved itself. But there was 
one thing more. 

“ I don’t suppose I need ask it,” said Nadine, “ but if 
Hughie gets worse, much worse, then I may come? 
I — I could n’t be there, then.” 

Jack kissed her. 

“ My dear girl,” he saki, “ what do you take me 
for? An ogre? But we won’t think about that at 
all. Please God, you will not come back for that 
reason.” 

Nadine very rudely dried her eyes on his rough 
homespun sleeve. 

“ You are such a comfort, Papa,” she said. 
“ You ’re quite firm and strong, like — like a big 
wisdom-tooth. And when we are at Winston, will you 
let Seymour come down and see me if he wants to? 
And — and if he comes will you come and interrupt 
us in half-an-hour? I’ve behaved horribly to him, 
but I can’t help it, and it — that we were n’t to be 
married, I mean — was in the Morning Post to-day, 
and it looked so horrible and cold. But whatever he 


330 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

wants to say to me, I think half-an-hour is sufficient. 
I wonder — I wonder if you know why I behaved 
like such a pig.” 

“ I think I might guess,” said Jack. 

“ Then you need n’t, because there ’s only one possi- 
ble guess. So we ’ll assume that you know. What 
a nuisance women are to your poor, long-suffering sex. 
Especially girls.” 

Jack laughed. 

“ They are just as much a nuisance afterwards,” 
said he. “ Look at your mother, how she is making 
life one perpetual martyrdom to me.” 

“ But she used to be a nuisance to you, Papa Jack,” 
said Nadine. 

“ There again you are wrong,” he said. “ I always 
loved her.” 

“ And does that prevent one’s being a nuisance ? ” 
asked Nadine. “ Are you sure? Because if you are, 
you need n’t interrupt Seymour quite so soon. I said 
half-an-hour, because I thought that would be time 
enough for him to tell me what a nuisance I was — ” 

“ You ’re a heartless little baggage,” observed 
Jack. 

“ Not quite,” said Nadine. 

“ Well, you’re an April day,” said he, seeing the 
smile break through. 

“And that is a doubtful compliment,” said she. 
“ But you are wrong if you think I am not sorry for 
Seymour. Yet what was I to do, Papa Jack, when I 
made The Discovery ? ” 

“ Well, you ’re not a heartless little baggage,” con- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


33i 

ceded Jack, “ but you have taken your heart out of 
one piece of the baggage, and packed it in another.” 

“ Oh, la, la,” said Nadine. “ We mix our meta- 
phors.” 

Nadine left with Jack in the motor soon after break- 
fast next morning. It had been settled that she 
should not tell Hugh she was going, until she said 
good-by to him, and when she went to his room next 
morning to do so, she found him still asleep, and the 
tall nurse entirely refused to have him awakened. 

“ Much better for him to sleep than to say good- 
by,” said this adamantine woman. “ When he wakes, 
he shall be told you have gone, if he asks.” 

“ Of course he ’ll ask,” said Nadine. 

She paused a moment. 

“ Will you let me know if he does n’t? ” she added. 

Nurse Bryerley’s grim capable face relaxed into a 
smile. She did not quite understand the situation, 
but she was quite content to do her best for her pa- 
tient according to her lights. 

“ And shall I say that you ’ll be back soon ? ” she 
asked. 

Nadine had no direct reply to this. 

“ Ah, do make him get well,” she said. 

“ That ’s what I ’m here for. And I will say that 
you ’ll be back soon, shall I, if he wants you? ” 

“ Soon? ” said Nadine. “ That minute.” 

Hugh slept long that morning, and Dodo was not 
told he was awake and ready to receive a morning 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


332 

call till the travelers had been gone a couple of hours. 
She had spent them in a pleasant atmosphere of con- 
scious virtue, engendered by the feeling that she had 
sent Jack away when she would much have preferred 
his stopping here. But as Dodo explained to Edith 
it took quite a little thing to make her feel good, 
whereas it took a lot to make her feel wicked. 

“ A nice morning, for instance,” she said, “ or send- 
ing my darling Jack away because it ’s good for Na- 
dine, or getting a postal-order. Quite little things 
like that make me feel a perfect saint. Whereas the 
powers of hell have to do their worst, as the hymn 
says, to make me feel wicked.” 

Edith gave a rather elaborate sigh. She had to 
sigh carefully because she had a cigarette and a pen 
in her mouth, while she was scratching out a blot she 
had made on the score she was revising. So care was 
needed ; otherwise cigarette and pen might have been 
shot from her mouth. When she spoke her utter- 
ance was indistinct and mumbling. 

“ I suppose you infer that you are more at home 
in heaven than hell,” she said, “ since just a touch 
makes you feel a saint. I should say it was the other 
way about. You are so at home in the other place 
that the most abysmal depths of infamy have to be 
presented to you before you know they are wicked 
at all, whereas you hail as divine the most infinitesimal 
distraction that breaks the monotonous round of vice. 
Perhaps I am expressing myself too strongly, but I 
feel strongly. The world is more high-colored to me 
than to other people.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


333 

** Darling, I never heard such a moderate and well- 
balanced statement,” said Dodo. “ Do go on.” 

“ I don’t want to. But I thought your optimism 
about yourself was sickly, and wanted a — a dash 
of discouragement. But you and Nadine are both 
the same: if you behave charmingly, you tell us to 
give the praise to you; if you behave abominably you 
say, ‘ I can’t help it : it was Nature’s fault for making 
me like that.’ Now I am not like that: whatever I 
do, I take the responsibility, and say, ‘I am I. Take 
me or leave me.’ But I have no doubt that Nadine 
believes it has been too wonderful of her to fall in 
love with Hugh. And when she jilts Seymour, she 
says ‘ Enquire at Nature’s Workshop; this firm is en- 
tirely independent.’ Bah ! ” 

Dodo laughed, but her laugh died rather quickly. 

“ Ah, don’t be hard, Edith,” she said. “ We most 
of us want encouragement at times, and we have to 
encourage ourselves by making ourselves out as nice 
as we can. Otherwise we should look on the mess 
we make of things as a hopeless job. Perhaps it is 
hopeless but that is the one thing we must n’t allow. 
We are like ” — Dodo paused for a simile — “ we are 
like children to whom is given a quantity of lovely 
little squares of mosaic, and we know, our souls know, 
that they can be put together into the most beautiful 
patterns. And we begin fairly well, but then the 
devil comes along, and jogs our elbow, and smashes 
it all up. Probably it is our own stupidity, but it 
is more encouraging to say it is the devil or nature, 
something not ourselves. Good heavens, my elbow 


334 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

has jogged often enough ! And when the pattern gets 
on well, we encourage ourselves by saying, ‘ This is 
clever and good and wise Me doing it now ! ’ And 
then perhaps something very big and solemn comes 
our way, and we bow our heads, and know it is n’t 
ourselves at all.” 

Edith had finished erasing her blot, and was gath- 
ering her sheets together. She tapped them dramat- 
ically with an inky forefinger. 

“ This is big and solemn,” she said. “ But it ’s 
Me. The artist’s inspiration never comes from out- 
side : it is always from within. I ’m going to send 
it to have the band parts copied to-day.” 

At the moment the message came that Hugh re- 
ceived, and Dodo got up. He had received Edith one 
morning, but the effect was that he had eaten no 
lunch and had dozed uneasily all afternoon. Edith 
had been content with the explanation that her vitality 
was too strong for him, and, while ready to give him 
another dose of it, did not press the matter; anyhow, 
she had other business on hand. 

He lay propped up in bed, with a wad of pillows 
at his back. He looked far more alert and present 
than he had yet done. Hitherto, he had been slow 
to grasp the meaning of what was said to him, and he 
hardly ever volunteered a statement or question, but 
this morning he smiled and spoke with quite unusual 
quickness. 

“ Morning, Aunt Dodo,” he said. “ I ’m awfully 
brisk to-day.” 

Nurse Bryerley put in a warning word. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 335 

“ Don’t be too brisk,” she said. “ Please don’t let 
him be too brisk,” she added, looking at Dodo. 

“ Hughie, dear, you do look better,” she said ; “ but 
we ’ll all be quite calm, and self-contained like 
flats.” 

Hugh frowned for a moment; then his face cleared 
again. 

“ I see,” he said. “ Bright, are n’t I? Aunt Dodo, 
I have certainly woke up this morning. You look 
real, do you know; before I was never quite certain 
about you. You looked as if you might be a good 
forgery, but spurious. Have a cigarette, and why 
shouldn’t I?” 

“ Wiser not,” said Nurse Bryerley laconically. 

Hugh’s briskness did not seem to be entirely good- 
natured. 

“ How on earth could a cigarette hurt me ? ” he 
said. “ Perhaps it would be wiser for Lady Chester- 
ford not to smoke either. Aunt Dodo, you must n’t 
smoke. Wiser not.” 

Nurse Bryerley smiled with secret content. 

“ That ’s right, Mr. Graves,” she said. “ I like to 
see my patients irritable. It always shows they are 
getting better.” 

“ I should have thought you might have seen that 
without annoying me,” said Hugh. 

“ Well, well, I don’t mind your having one cigarette 
to keep Lady Chesterford company,” said the nurse. 
“ But you ’ll be disappointed.” 

Dodo took out her case as Nurse Bryerley left the 
room. “ Here you are, Hughie,” she said. 


336 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

Hugh lit one, and blew a cloud of smoke through 
his nostrils, 

“ Are they quite fresh, Aunt Dodo?” he said. 

“ Yes, dear, quite. Does n’t it taste right? ” 

“ Yes, delicious,” said Hugh, absolutely determined 
not to find it disappointing. “ I say, what a sunny 
morning ! ” 

“ Is it too much in your eyes? ” 

“ It is rather. Will you ask Nurse Bryerley to 
pull the blind down ? Why should you ? ” 

“ Chiefly, dear, because it is n’t any trouble.” 

Dodo pulled down the blind ‘too far on the first 
attempt to be pleasing, not far enough on the second. 
Hugh felt she was very clumsy. 

“Isn’t Nadine coming to see me this morning?” 
he asked. “ But I daresay she is tired of sitting with 
me every day.” 

Dodo came back to her chair by the bed again. 

“ She went off with Jack to Winston this morn- 
ing,” she said. “Just for a change. She was very 
much tired and overdone. You ’ve been a fearful 
anxiety to her, you dear bad boy.” 

Hugh put his cigarette down and shut his mouth, 
as if firmly determined never to speak again. 

“ She came in to say good-by to you,” she said, 
“ but you were asleep and they did n’t want to wake 
you.” 

There was still dead silence on Hugh’s part. 

“ It was only settled she should go yesterday,” she 
continued, “and she had to be persuaded. But Jack 
wanted one of us, and, as I say, she was very much 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 337 

overdone. Now I ’m not the least overdone. So I 
stopped. But I wish she could have seen how much 
more yourself you were when you woke to-day.” 

At length Hugh spoke. 

“ What is the use of telling me that sort of tale? ” 
he said. “ She is going to be married to Seymour 
in a few days. She has gone away for that. I sup- 
pose in some cold-blooded way she thought it better 
to sneak off without telling me. No doubt it was very 
tactful of her.” * 

Dodo turned round towards him. 

“ No, Hughie, you are quite wrong,” she said. 
“ Nadine is not going to marry Seymour at all.” 

Hugh lifted his right hand, and examined it cur- 
sorily. A long cut, now quite healed, ran up the 
length of his forefinger. 

“ I see,” he said. “ She said she would marry Sey- 
mour in order to get rid of me, and now that I have 
been got rid of in other ways, she has no further use 
for him. Is n’t that it? ” 

His face had become quite white, and the hand with 
the healed wound trembled so violently that the bed 
shook. 

“ No, that is not it,” said Dodo quietly. “ And 
don’t be so nervous and fidgety, my dear.” 

Suddenly the trembling ceased. 

“ Aunt Dodo, if it is not that, what is it? ” he asked, 
in a voice that would have melted Rhadamanthus. 

She turned a shining face on him, and laid her 
hand on his. 

“ Oh, Hughie, lie still and get well,” she said. 


338 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ And then ask Nadine herself. She will come back 
when you want her. She told Nurse Bryerley to tell 
you so, if you asked.” 

Hugh moved across his other hand, so that Dodo’s 
lay between his. 

“ I must ask you one more thing,” he said. 44 Is 
it because of me in any way that she chucked Sey- 
mour? I entreat you to say 4 no ’ if it is 4 no.’ ” 

44 I can’t say 4 no/ ” said Dodo. 

Hugh drew one long sobbing breath. 

44 It ’s mere pity then,” he said. 44 Nadine always 
liked me, and she was always impulsive like that. I 
daresay she won’t marry him till I ’m better, if I am 
ever better. She will wait till I am strong enough to 
enjoy it thoroughly.” 

Dodo interrupted him. 

44 Hughie, don’t say bitter and untrue things like 
that,” she said. 44 And don’t feel them. She is not 
going to marry Seymour, either now or afterwards.” 

Once again Hugh was silent, and after an interval 
Dodo spoke, divining exactly what was in his irritable 
convalescent mind. 

44 1 have never deceived you before, Hughie,” she 
said, 44 and you have no right to distrust me now. I 
am telling you the truth. I also tell you the truth 
when I say you must get bitter thoughts out of your 
mind. Ah, my dear, it is not always easy. There ’s 
a beast within each of us.” 

44 There ’s a beast within me,” said Hugh. 

44 And there ’s a dear brave fellow whom I am so 
proud of,” said Dodo. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 339 

Hugh’s lip quivered, but there was a quality in his 
silence as different from that which had gone before, 
as there was between his callings for Nadine on the 
night when she fought death for him. 

“ And now that ’s enough,” said Dodo. “ Shall I 
read to you, Hughie, or shall I leave you for the pres- 
ent? ” 

He held her hand a moment longer. 

“ I think I will lie still and — and think,” he said. 

“ Good luck to your fishing, dear,” said she, ris- 
ing. 

“ Good luck to your fishing?” he said. “It’s on 
a picture. Small boy fishing, kneeling in the waves.” 

Dodo beat a strategic retreat. 

“ Is it?” she said. 

But it seemed to Hugh that her voice lacked the 
blank enquiry tone of ignorance. 

Hugh settled himself a little lower down on his 
backing of pillows, after Dodo had left him, and tried 
to arrange his mind, so that the topics that concerned 
it stood consecutively. But Dodo’s last remark, which 
certainly should have stood last also in his reflections, 
kept on shouldering itself forward. She had wished 
him “ good luck to his fishing,” and he could not 
bring himself to believe that, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, there was not in her mind a certain picture, 
of a little winged boy, kneeling in the waves, who 
dropped a red line into the unquiet sea. He could 
not, and did not try to remember the painter, but cer- 
tainly the picture had been at some exhibition which 
he and Nadine had attended together. A little 


340 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

winged boy. . . . The title was printed after the num- 
ber in the catalogue. 

Nadine was not to marry Seymour now or after- 
wards. . . . There came a black speck again over his 
thoughts. He himself had been got rid of by this 
crippling accident, and now she had expunged Sey- 
mour also. ‘ And though she saw all heaven in 
flower above, she would not love.’ The lines came 
into his mind without any searching for them; for 
the moment he could not remember where he had 
heard them. And then memory began to awake. 

Hitherto, he had not been able to recall anything of 
the day or two that preceded his catastrophe. A few 
of the immediate events before it he had never for- 
gotten. He remembered Nadine calling out, “ No 
Hugh, not you,” he remembered her cry of “ Well 
done ” ; he remembered that he had toppled in on that 
line of toppling waters with a small boy on his back. 
But now a fresh line of memory had been awakened : 
some connection in his brain had been restored, and he 
remembered their quarrel and reconciliation on the 
day the gale began ; how she had: said, “ Oh, H’ughie, 
if only I loved you! ” Soon after came the porten- 
tous advent of the wind, with the blotting out of the 
sun, and the transformation of the summer sea. 

He heard with unspeakable irritation the entry of 
Nurse Bryerley. That seemed an unwarrantable in- 
trusion, for he felt as if he had been alone with 
Nadine, and now this assiduous grenadier broke in 
upon them with a hundred fidgety offices to perform. 
She restored to him a fallen pillow, she closed a win- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


34i 

dow through which a breeze was blowing rather freely, 
she brought him a cup of chicken-broth. It seemed 
an eternity before she asked him if he was comforta- 
ble, and made her long-delayed exit. Even then she 
reminded him that the doctor was due in half-an- 
hour. 

But for half-an-hour he would be alone now, and 
for the first time since his accident he found that he 
wanted to think. Hitherto his mind had sat vacant, 
like an idle passenger who sees without observation or 
interest the transit of the country. But Dodo’s visit 
this morning and her communications to him had 
made life appear a thing that once more concerned 
him ; till now it was but a manceuver taking place round 
him, but outside him. Now the warmth of it reached 
him again, and began to circulate through him. And 
what she had told him was being blown out, as it 
were, in his brain, even as a lather of soapsuds is blown 
out into an iridescent bubble, on which gleam all the 
hues of sunset and moonrise and rainbow. The rain- 
bow was not one of the vague dreams in which, lately, 
his mind had moved ; it was a real thing, not receding 
but coming nearer to him, blown towards him by some 
steady breeze, not idly vagrant in the effortless air. 
Should it break on his heart, not into nothingness, 
but into the one white light out of which the sum of 
all lights and colors is made ? 

He could not doubt that it was this which Dodo 
meant. Nadine had thrown over Seymour and that 
concerned him. And then swift as the coming of the 
storm which they had seen together, came the thought, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


342 

clear and precise as the rows of thunder-clouds, that 
for all he knew a barrier forever impenetrable lay be- 
tween them. For he could never offer to her a crip- 
ple; the same pride that had refused to let him take 
an intimate place beside her after she, by her accep- 
tance of Seymour, had definitely rejected him, for- 
bade him, without possibility of discussion, to let her 
tie herself to him, unless he could stand sound and 
whole beside her. He must be competent in brain 
and bone and body to be Nadine’s husband. And for 
that as yet he had no guarantee. 

Since his accident he had not up till now cared to 
know precisely what his injuries were, nor whether 
he could ever completely recover from them. The 
concussion of the brain had quenched all curiosity, and 
interest not only in things external to him, but in him- 
self, and he had received the assurance that he was 
going on very well with the unconcern that we feel 
for remote events. But now his thoughts flew back 
from Nadine and clustered round himself. He felt 
that he must know his chances, the best or the worst 
. . . and yet he dreaded to know, for he could live 
for a little in a paradise by imagining that he would 
get completely well, instead of in a shattered ruin 
which the knowledge of the worst would strew round 
him. > 

But this morning the energy of life which for those 
two weeks had lain dormant in him, began to stir 
again. He wanted. It seemed to him but a few mo- 
ments since his nurse left him that Dr. Cardew came 
in. He saw the flushed face and brightened eyes of 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 343 

his patient, and after an enquiry or two took out the 
thermometer which he had not used for days, and tested 
Hugh’s temperature. He put it back again in its 
nickel case with a smile. 

“ Well, it ’s not any return of fever, anyhow,” he 
said. “ Do you feel different in any way this morn- 
ing?” 

“ Yes. I want to get well.” 

“ Highly commendable,” said Dr. Cardew. 

Hugh fingered the bed-clothes in sudden agitation. 

“ I want to know if I shall get well,” he said. “ I 
don’t mean half well, in a Bath-chair, but quite well. 
And I want to know what my injuries were.” 

Dr. Cardew looked at him a moment without speak- 
ing. But it was perfectly clear that this fresh color 
and eagerness in Hugh’s face was but the lamp of 
life burning brighter. There was no reason that he 
should not know what he asked, now that he cared to 
know. 

“ You broke your hip-bone,” he said. “ You also 
had very severe concussion of the brain. There were 
a quantity of little injuries.” 

“ Oh, tell me the best and the worst of it quickly,” 
said Hugh with impatience. 

“ I can tell you nothing for certain for a few days 
yet about the fracture. There is no reason why it 
should not mend perfectly. And to-day for the first 
time I am not anxious about the other.” 

Quite suddenly Hugh put his hands before his face 
and broke into a passion of weeping. 


CHAPTER XIII 


A WEEK later, Dodo was interviewing Dr. 

Cardew in her sitting-room at Meering. He 
had just spoken at some little length to her, and she had 
time to notice that he looked like a third-rate actor, 
and recorded the fact also that Edith seemed to have 
gone back to scales and the double-bass. This im- 
pression was conveyed from next door. He spoke 
like an actor, too, and said things several times over, 
as if it was a play. He talked about fractures and con- 
junctions, and X-ray photographs, and satisfaction, 
and the recuperative powers of youth and satisfaction 
and X-rays. Eventually Dodo could stand this 
harangue no longer. 

“It is all too wonderful,” she said, “and I quite 
see that if science had n’t made so many discoveries, 
we could n’t tell if Hughie would have a Bath-chair 
till doomsday or not. But now, Dr. Cardew, he is 
longing to hear, and dreading to hear, poor lamb, and 
won’t you let me be the butcher, or I suppose I should 
say, ‘ Mary ’ ? You ’ve been such a clever butcher, if 
you understand, and I do want to be Mary, who had 
a little lamb ” — she added in desperation, lest he should 
never understand her allusive conversation. “Of 
course he ’s not my little lamb, but my daughter’s, and 
he wants to know so frightfully. Yes: I understand 
344 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


345 

about his intellect, too. It seems to me as bright as 
it ever was, and I notice no change whatever. He 
always spoke as if he was excited. May I go? ” 

Dodo intended to go, whether she might or not, but 
just at the door, she seemed to herself to have treated 
this distinguished physician with some abruptness. 
She unwillingly paused. 

“ Do stop to lunch,” she said, “ it will be lunch in 
ten minutes, and you will find me not so completely 
distracted. I shall be quite sensible, and would you 
ring the bell and tell them you are stopping? Don’t 
mind the scales and the double-bass, dear Dr. Cardew ; 
it is only Mrs. Arbuthnot, of whom you have heard. 
She will not play at lunch. I know you think you 
have come to a mad-house, but we are all quite sane. 
And I may go and tell Hughie what you have told me ? 
If you hear loud screams of joy, it will only be me, 
and you need n’t take any notice.” 

Dodo slid along the passage, upset a chair in Nurse 
Bryerley’s room, and knelt down on the floor by 
Hugh’s bed. She clawed at something with her eager 
hands, and it was chiefly bed-clothes. 

“ Oh, praise God, Hughie,” she said. “ Amen. 
There! Now you know, and there won’t Be any 
crutches, my dear, or the shadow of a Bath-chair, 
whatever that is like. You won’t have chicken-broth, 
and a foolish nurse; not you, dear Nurse Bryerley, I 
did n’t mean you, and you will walk again and run 
again, and play the fool, just like me, for a hundred 
years more. I told Dr. Cardew you were n’t ever very 
calm or unexcited, and your poor broken hip has 


346 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

mended itself, and your kidneys are n’t mixed up with 
your liver and lights, and you ’ve — you ’ve got your 
strong young body back again, and your silly young 
brain. Oh, Hughie ! ” 

Dodo leaned forward and clutched a more satisfac- 
tory handful of Hugh’s shoulders. 

“ I could n’t let anybody but myself tell you,” she 
said. “ I had to tell you. But nobody else knows. 
You can tell anybody else you want to tell.” 

Hugh was paying but the very slightest attention to 
Dodo. 

“ Telegraph-form,” he said rather rudely to Nurse 
Bryerley. 

Dodo loved this inattention to herself. There was 
nothing banal about it. He had no more thought of 
her than he would have had for a newspaper that con- 
tained ecstatic tidings. He did not stroke or kiss or 
shake hands with a mere newspaper that told him such 
great things. 

“ It ’s so funny not to have telegraph-forms handy,” 
he said. 

“ I know, dear. They ought always to be in every 
room. But servants are so forgetful. Talk to me 
until Nurse Bryerley gets one.” 

Hugh looked at her with shining eyes. 

“ How can I talk? ” he said. “ There ’s nothing to 
say. I want that telegraph-form.” 

Dodo, human and practical and explosive, yearned 
for the statement of what she knew. 

“ Whom are you going to telegraph to ? ” she asked. 

Hugh had time for one contemptuous glance at her. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


347 

“ Oh, Aunt Dodo, you ass ! ” he said. “ Oh, by 
Jove, how awfully rude of me, and I have n’t thanked 
you for coming to tell me. Thanks so much : I am so 
grateful to you for all your goodness to me — ah ! ” 

He took a telegraph-form and scribbled a few 
words. 

“ May it go now? ” he said. 

Dodo was almost embarrassingly communicative at 
lunch, at which meal Edith did not appear, and the 
continued booming of the double-bass indicated that 
Art was being particularly long that morning. Conse- 
quently Dodo found herself alone with an astonished 
physician. 

“If only a man could be a clergyman and a doctor,” 
she said, “ you could tell him everything, because 
clergy know all about the soul and doctors all about 
the body, and when you completely understand any- 
thing, you can’t be shocked at it. I think I should 
have poisoned you, Dr. Cardew, if you had said that 
Hughie would never be the same man again : anyhow 
I should n’t have asked you to lunch. Ah, in that case 
I could n’t have poisoned you ! How difficult it must 
be to plan a crime really satisfactorily. I always have 
had a great deal of sympathy with criminals, because 
my great-grandfather was hanged for smuggling. 
Do have some more mutton, which calls itself lamb. 
I certainly shall. I ’m going to have a baby, you 
know, or perhaps you did n’t. Is n’t it ridiculous at 
my age, and he ’s going to be called David.” 

“ In case — ” began Dr. Cardew. 

“ No, in any case,” said Dodo. “ I mean it cer- 


348 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

tainly is going to be a boy. You shall see. What a 
day for January, is it not? The year has turned, 
though I hope that doesn’t mean it will go bad. I 
wish you had seen Hughie’s face when I told him he 
was n’t going to have a Bath-chair. He looked like 
one of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ angels with a three weeks’ 
beard, which I should n’t wonder if he was shaving 
now, since, as I said, there aren’t going to be any 
Bath-chairs.” 

“ I don’t quite follow,” said Dr. Cardew politely but 
desperately. 

“ I ’m sure I don’t wonder,” said Dodo cordially, 
“ although it ’s so clear to me. But you see, he ’s 
going to propose to my daughter now that it ’s certain 
he will be the same man again and not a different one, 
and no eligible young man ever has a beard. What 
a good title for a sordid and tragic romance ‘ Beards 
and Bath-chairs ’ would be. Of course Hughie in- 
stantly called for a telegraph-form, and when I asked 
him who he was telegraphing to, he called me an ass, in 
so many words, or rather so few. After all I had 
done for him, too ! Oh, here ’s Edith ; Dr. Cardew and 
I have not been listening to your playing, but we ’re 
sure it has been lovely. Do you know Dr. Cardew? 
And it ’s Mrs. Arbuthnot, or ought I to say ‘ she ’s 
Mrs. Arbuthnot’? Edith, if you don’t mind our 
smoking, Dr. Cardew and I will wait and talk to you 
for a little, but if you do, we won’t.” 

Edith shook hands so warmly with the doctor, that 
he felt he must have been an old friend of hers, and 
that the fact had eluded his memory. But it was only 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


349 

the general zeal which a long musical morning gave 
her. 

“ I ’m sure you came to see our poor Hugh,” she 
said. “ Do tell me, is there the slightest chance of his 
ever walking again ? ” 

“ Not the smallest,” said Dodo; “ I ’ve just been to 
break the news to him, and he has telegraphed to 
Nadine to come at once — I can’t keep it up. Edith, 
he is going to be perfectly well again, and he has tele- 
graphed to Nadine just the same.” 

Edith looked a little disappointed. 

“ Then I suppose we must resign ourselves to a per- 
fectly conventional and Philistine ending,” she said. 
“ There was all the makings of a twentieth century 
tragedy about the situation, and now I am afraid it is 
going to tail off and be domestic and happy and utterly 
inartistic. I had better hopes for Nadine, she always 
looked as if there might be some wild destiny in store 
for her, and when she engaged herself to Seymour 
without caring two straws for him, I thought I heard 
a great fate knocking at the door — ” 

This was too gross an inconsistency for even Dodo 
to pass over. 

“ And you said at the time you thought the engage- 
ment was horrible and unnatural and me a wicked 
mother for permitting it,” she cried. 

“ Very possibly. No doubt then I was being a 
woman, now I am talking as an artist. You always 
confuse the two, Dodo, for all your general acumen. 
When I have been playing all morning — ” 

“ Scales,” said Dodo. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


350 

“ A great deal of the finest music in the world is 
based on scale passages, and the second movement of 
my symphony is based on them too. When I have 
been playing all morning, I see things as an artist. I 
know Dr. Cardew will agree with me: sometimes he 
sees things as a surgeon, sometimes as a man. As a 
surgeon if a hazardous operation is in front of him, 
he says to himself, 4 This is a wonderful and danger- 
ous thing, and it thrills me.’ As a man he says, * Poor 
devil, I am afraid he may die under the knife.* As 
for you, Dodo, artistically speaking, you spoiled a sit- 
uation as lurid as a play by Webster. 4 Princess 
Waldenech * might have been as classical in real life 
as the 4 Duchess of Malfi / Artistically an atmosphere 
as stormy as the first act of the Valkyries surrounded 
you. And now instead of the 4 Goiter dammerung 9 
you are going to give us 4 Hansel und Gretel / with 
flights of angels.” 

Dodo exploded with laughter. 

44 And while I was still giving you 4 Princess Wal- 
denech*/* she said, 44 you cut me for a year.” 

44 As a woman/* cried Edith ; 44 as an artist I adored 
you. You were as ominous as Faust’s black poodle. 
Of course your first marriage to a man who adored 
you, for whom you did not care one bar of the 
4 Hallelujah chorus/ was a thing that might have 
happened to anybody; but when, as soon as he was 
mercifully delivered, you got engaged to Jack, and 
at the last moment jilted him for that melodramatic 
drunkard, I thought great things were going to hap- 
pen. Then you divorced him, and I waited with a 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


351 

beating heart. And now, would you believe it, Dr. 
Cardew ! ” cried Edith, pointing a carving fork with a 
slice of ham on the end of it at him. “ She has mar- 
ried Lord Chesterford, as you know, and is going to 
have a baby. And all that wealth of potential 
tragedy is going to end in a silver christening-mug. 
The silly suffragette with her hammer and a plate- 
glass window has more sense of drama than you, 
Dodo. And now Nadine is going to take after you, 
and marry the man she loves. Hugh is just as bad : 
instead of dying for the sake of that blear-eyed child 
who comes up to enquire after him every day, he is 
going to live for the sake of Nadine. Drama is 
dead. Of course it has long been dead in literature, 
but I hoped it survived in life.” 

Dodo turned anxiously to Dr. Cardew. 

“ She is n’t mad,” she said reassuringly. “ You 
need n’t be the least frightened. She will play golf 
immediately after lunch.” 

Edith had been brought her large German pewter 
beer-mug, and for the moment she had put her face 
into it, like old-fashioned gentlemen praying into 
their hats on Sunday morning before service. There 
was a little froth on the end of her rather long nose 
when she took it out. 

“ Why not ? ” she said. “ All artistic activity is a 
sort of celestial disease, and its antidote is bodily ac- 
tivity which is a material disease. A perfectly 
healthy body, like mine, does not need exercise, ex- 
cept in order to bring down the temperature of the 
celestial fever. When I am playing golf, my artistic 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


352 

soul goes to sleep and rests. And when I am com- 
posing, I should not know a golf -ball from an egg. 
That is me. You might think I am being egoistic, 
but I only take myself as an instance of a type. I 
speak for the whole corporate body of artists.” 

“ Militant here on earth,” remarked Dodo. 

“Militant? Of course all artists are militant, and 
they fight against blind eyes and deaf ears. They 
scream and lighten, and hope to shake this dull world 
into perception. But it is fighting against prodigious 
odds. The drama that seems to interest the world 
now is a presentation of the hopeless lives of subur- 
ban people. Any note of romance or distinction is 
sufficient to secure a failure. It ’s the same in music : 
Debussy when he tells us of rain in the garden 
makes the rain fall into a small backyard with sooty 
blighted plants growing in it, out of a foggy sky. 
When he gives us ‘reflets dans I’eau’ the water is a 
little cement basin in the same backyard, with anemic 
goldfish swimming about in it. As for Strauss, he 
began and finished with that terrible ‘ domestic sym- 
phony/ It went from the kitchen into the scullery, 
and back again. Fiction is the same. Any book 
that deals with entirely dull people, provided that 
they, none of them, ever show a spark of real fire or 
are touched by romance or joy or beauty, makes suc- 
cess. They must have the smell of oilcloth and Irish 
stew around them, and then the world says, ‘ This is 
art 9 or ‘ This is reality/ There ’s the mistake ! Art 
is never real: it is fantasy, a fairy-story, a soap- 
bubble sailing into the sunset. It is Art because it 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 353 

takes you out of reality. Of course artists are mili- 
tant; they fight against dullness, and they will fight 
forever, and they will never win. As for their being 
militant here on earth, you must be militant some- 
where. I shall be militant in heaven by and by. I 
wonder if you understand. As I said, I was disap- 
pointed in Nadine artistically, but I am enraptured 
with her humanly. On that same plane I am enrap- 
tured with you, Dodo. Humanly speaking, I have 
watched you with sobs in my throat, battling perilously 
on the great seas. And now you are like a battered 
ship, having weathered all storms, and putting into 
port, with all the piers and quays shouting congratula- 
tion. Artistically speaking, you are a derelict, and I 
should like to have you blown up. Hullo, what has 
happened to Dr. Cardew ? ” 

Dodo looked quickly round. The thought just 
crossed her mind that he might be asleep or having a 
fit. But there was no Dr. Cardew there, nor anywhere 
about, to be seen. 

“ He has gone away while we were n’t attending, 
just as a conjurer changes a rabbit to an omelette while 
you are n’t attending,” she said, “ and I ’m sure I 
don’t wonder. Oh, Edith, at last the ‘ Hunting of 
the Snark ’ has come true. I see now that we are 
Boojums. People softly and silently vanish away 
when you and I are talking, poor dears. They can’t 
stand it, and I ’ve noticed it before. Dear old Chest- 
erford used to vanish sometimes like that, and I never 
knew until I saw he was n’t there. I ’m sure Bertie 
vanishes too sometimes. I suppose we ought to 


354 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

vanish also, as the table must be laid again for dinner 
to-night.” 

Edith finished her beer. 

“ I had breakfast, lunch and dinner on the same 
cloth once,” she said. “ I was composing all day, 
and at intervals things were stuck in front of me 
while I ate or drank. I didn’t move from nine in 
the morning till half-past eight in the evening, and I 
wrote forty pages of full score, and the inspiration 
never flagged for a moment. I wonder why artists 
are so fond of writing what they call ‘ My Memories’ ; 
they ought to be content, as I am, to stand or fall by 
what they have done. Thank God, I have never had 
any doubts about my standing. Oh, I see a telegraph- 
boy coming up the drive. It is sure to be for me. I 
am expecting a quantity.” 

This particular one happened to be for Dodo. 
Edith was disposed to take it as a personal insult. 

Nadine during the days she had spent at Winston 
had not done much looking after Papa Jack, which 
had been the face-reason of her going there; and it is 
doubtful whether the real reason had found itself ful- 
filled, since there was substituted for the strain of 
seeing Hugh daily, the strain of wanting to see him. 
Dodo, with her own swift recuperative powers, and 
the genius she had for being absorbed in her im- 
mediate surroundings, had not reckoned with Na- 
dine’s inferior facility in this respect, nor had she 
realized how completely the love which had at last 
touched Nadine drained and dominated her whole na- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


355 

ture. All her zest for living, all her sensitiveness and 
intelligence seemed to have been, as by some alchem- 
ical touch, transformed into the gold which, all her 
life, had been missing from her. She explained this 
to Esther, who, with an open-mindedness that might 
have appeared rather unsisterly, ranged her sympa- 
thies in opposition to Seymour. 

“ How long I shall be able to stop here,” she said, 
“ I don’t know. I promised Mama I would go 
away for at least a week, unless Hughie wanted me, 
but after that I think I shall go back whether he 
wants me or not. I can’t attend to anything else, and 
last night when I was playing billiards I carefully put 
the chalk into my coffee, which is not at all the sort 
of thing I usually do. It is very odd: all my life I 
have been quite unaware of this one thing, now I am 
not really aware of anything else. You are rather 
dream-like yourself to me: I am not quite sure if you 
have really happened, or are part of a general back- 
ground — ” 

“ I am not part of any background,” said Esther 
firmly. 

“No, so you say; but perhaps it is only the back- 
ground that tells me so. And I suppose I ought to 
think a great deal about Seymour. I try to do that, 
but when I ’ve thought about him for about a minute 
and a quarter, I find my thoughts wander, and I won- 
der if Hughie has had his beef-tea or not. I do hope 
that he is not unhappy, but having hoped it, I have 
finished with that, and remember that just at this mo- 
ment Hughie is being made comfortable for the night. 


356 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

But do pin me down to Seymour. Did you see him 
in town, and does he mean to tell me what he 
thinks ? ” 

“ Yes, I saw him. He was exceedingly cross, but 
I don’t think his crossness came from temper; it came 
from his mind’s hurting him. He told me he had 
meant to come down here and have it out with you, 
but presently he said you weren’t worth it. So I 
took your side.” 

“That was darling of you,” said Nadine; “but I 
am not sure that Seymour is not right.” 

“ How can he be right? You have n’t changed to- 
wards him.” 

“Oh, doesn’t jilting him make a change?” asked 
Nadine hopefully. 

“No, that is an accident, as I told him. You 
did n’t do it on purpose. You might as well say that 
to be knocked down by a motor-car is done on pur- 
pose. You get knocked down by Hughie. You 
had n’t ever loved Seymour at all, and really you said 
you would marry him largely because you wanted 
Hughie to stop thinking about you. It was chiefly 
for Hughie’s sake you said you would marry Sey- 
mour, and it was so wonderful of you. Then came 
another accident and Seymour fell in love with you. 
I warned him when we were on the family improve- 
ment tour in the summer that he was doing rather a 
risky thing — ” 

Nadine got up. 

“Risky?” she said. “Oh, how risky it is. It is 
that which makes it so splendid! You risk every- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 357 

thing: you go for it blind. Do you think Seymour 
went for it blind? I don’t believe he did. I think 
he had one eye open all the time. He could n’t be 
quite blind I think: his intelligence would prevent it. 
And I don’t think he would be cross now, if he had 
been quite blind. So I am not properly sorry for 
him.” 

" I went to lunch with him,” said Esther. “ He 
ate an enormous lunch, which I suppose is a consoling 
sign. But then Seymour would eat an enormous 
breakfast on the morning he was going to be hung. 
He would feel that he would never have any more 
breakfasts, so he would eat one that would last for- 
ever. I think we have given enough time to Sey- 
mour. It is much more important that you should n’t 
think of me as a background.” 

Nadine apparently thought differently. 

“ But I want to be nice to Seymour,” she said, 
“and I don’t see how to begin. And — and he’s 
part of the background, too. He does n’t seem 
really to matter. But if he was really fond of me, 
like that, it ’s hateful of me not to care. But how 
can I care ? I ’ve tried to care every day, and often 
twice a day, but — oh, a huge ‘ but.’ ” 

The two were talking in Dodo’s sitting-room, 
which Nadine had very wisely appropriated. At 
this moment the door opened, and Seymour stood 
there. 

“ I made up my mind not to come and see you,” he 
said to Nadine, “ and then I changed it.” 

Esther sprang up. 


358 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

“ Oh, Seymour, how mean of you,” she said, “ not 
to ask Nadine if you might come.” 

“ Not at all. She was bound to see me. But I 
did n’t come to see you. You had better go away.” 

“If Nadine wishes — ” she began. 

“ It does not matter what Nadine wishes. Nadine, 
please tell her to go.” 

Seymour spoke quite quietly, and having spoken he 
turned aside and lit a cigarette he held in his hand. 
By the time he had finished doing that the door had 
closed behind Esther. He looked round. 

“ What a charming room ! ” he said. “ But if you 
are going to sit in a room like this, you ought to dress 
for it.” 

Nadine felt that all the sorrow she had been con- 
scious of for him was being squeezed out of her. He 
tiptoed about, now looking at a picture, and now fin- 
gering an embroidery. He stopped for a moment op- 
posite a Louis Seize tapestry chair, and gently 
flicked off it the cigarette ash that he had let drop 
there. He looked at the faded crimson of the Span- 
ish silk on the walls, and examined with extreme 
care a Dutch picture of a frozen canal with peasants 
skating, that hung above the mantelpiece. There was 
an Aubonne carpet on the floor, and after one glance 
at it he went softly off it, and stood on the hearth- 
rug. 

“I should put three-quarters of this room into a 
museum,” he said, " and the rest into a dust-bin. 
You are going to ask me what I should put into the 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


359 

dust-bin. I should put that sham Watteau picture 
there, and that bureau that thinks it is Jacobean.'’ 

“And me?” asked Nadine. 

“ I am not sure. No : I am sure. I don’t put you 
anywhere. I want to know where you put yourself. 
Perhaps you think you don’t owe me an explanation. 
But I disagree with you. I think you owe it me. 
Of course I know you haven’t got an explanation. 
But I should like to hear your idea of one.” 

Standing on the hearth-rug he pointed his toe as 
he spoke, looking at the well-polished shoe that shod 
it. Nadine was just on the point of telling him that 
he was thinking not about her, but about his shoe, 
but he was too quick for her. 

“Of course I ’m thinking about my shoe,” he said. 
“ I was wondering how it is that Antoinette polishes 
shoes better than any one in the world.” 

“ Is that what you have come to talk about ? ” 
asked Nadine. 

“ That is a very foolish question, Nadine. You 
have quibbled and chattered so incessantly that some- 
times I think you can do nothing else. You might 
retort with a tu quoque, but it would not be true. I 
was capable anyhow of falling in love with you, I 
regret to say.” 

Seymour paused a moment, and then raised his 
eyes, which had been steadily regarding the master- 
pieces of Antoinette, to Nadine. 

“ I am wrong : I don’t regret it,” he said. 

Suddenly his sincerity and his reality reached and 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


360 ' 

touched Nadine. He stepped out of the back- 
ground, so to speak, and stood firmly and authentic- 
ally beside her. 

“ I regret it very much,” she said, “ and I am as 
powerless to help you, as I am to help myself.” 

“ You seem to have been helping yourself pretty 
freely,” said he in a sudden exasperation. But she, 
usually so quick to flare into flame, felt no particle of 
resentment. 

“ There is no good in saying that,” she said. 

“ I did not mean there to be. Good ? I did not 
come down here to do you good.” 

“ Why did you come? Just to reproach me?” 

“ Partly.” 

Again Seymour paused. 

“ I came chiefly in order to look at you,” he said 
at length. “ You are quite as beautiful as ever, you 
may like to know.” 

It was as if a further light had been turned on 
him, making him clearer and more real. She had 
confessed to Esther her inability to be “ properly 
sorry ” for him, but now found herself not so in- 
capable. 

“ I can’t help either you or myself,” she said 
again. “ We have both been taken in control by 
something outside ourselves, which never happened 
to either of us before. You feel that I have behaved 
atrociously to you, and any one you ask would agree 
with you. But the atrocity was necessary. I 
couldn’t help it. Only you must not think that I 
am not sorry for the effect that such necessity has 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


361 

had on you. I regret it very much. But if you ask 
me whether I am ashamed of myself, I answer that I 
am not.” 

She went on with growing rapidity and animation. 

“If you have been in love with me, Seymour,” she 
said, “ you will understand that, for you will know 
that compulsion has been put upon me. How was it 
any longer possible for me to marry you, when I fell 
in love with Hughie? I jilted you: it is a word quite 
hideous, like flirt, but just as never in my life did I 
flirt, so I have not jilted you in the hideous sense. It 
was not because I was tired of you, or had a fancy 
for some one else. There was no getting away from 
what happened. Hughie enveloped me. My walls 
fell down, and went to Jericho. It was n’t my fault. 
The trumpets blew, just that.” 

“ And in walked Hugh,” said Seymour. 

“ I am not sure about that,” said Nadine. “ I 
think he was there all the time, walled up.” 

Seymour was silent a moment. 

“ How is he ? ” he asked. 

“ He is going on well. They do not know more 
than that yet. He is getting over the concussion, 
but they cannot tell yet whether he will be able to 
walk again.” 

“ And are you going to marry him in any case, if 
he is a cripple, I mean ? ” he asked. 

“If Hughie will have me. I daresay I shall pro- 
pose to him, and be refused, just as used to happen 
the other way round in the old days. Oh, I know 
what his soul is like so well! He will say that he 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


362 

will not let me spend all my life looking after a 
cripple. But I shall have my way in the end. I am 
much stronger than he.” 

Seymour saw and understood the change in her 
face when she spoke of Hugh. Admirable as her 
beauty always was, he had not dreamed that such 
tender transformation could come to it, or that it was 
capable of assuming so inward-burning and devoted 
a quality and yet shining with its habitual brilliance 
uneclipsed. The love which he had dreamed would 
some day awake there for him, he saw now in the 
first splendor of its dawning, and from it he could 
guess what would be the glory of its full noonday, 
and with how celestial a ray she would shine on her 
lover. For the moment it seemed to him not to mat- 
ter that it was another, not he, on whom that dawn 
should break, for whom it should grow to noonday, 
and sink at last in the golden West of a life truly 
and lovingly lived without fear of the lengthening 
shadows and the night that must inevitably close as 
it had preceded it; for by the power of his own love, 
he could -detach himself from himself, and though 
only momently reach that summit of devotion far be- 
low which, remote and insignificant, lies the mere 
husk and shell of the world that spins through the 
illimitable azure. So Dante saw the face of Beatrice, 
when he passed into the sweetness of the Earthly 
Paradise, and there came to him she whom the chariot 
with its harnessed griffins drew. And not otherwise, 
in his degree and hers, Seymour looked now at 
Nadine’s face, glorified and made tender by her love, 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 363 

and in the perception that his own love gave him, he 
hailed and adored it . . . 

“ I came to scold and reproach,” he said, “ but I 
also came just to see you, to look at you. There is 
no harm in that. And if there is I can’t help it. 
Nadine, I used to wonder what you would look like 
when you loved. You have shown me that. I — I 
did n’t guess. There ’s a poem by Browning which 
ends ‘ Those who win heaven, blest are they.’ The 
man who speaks was just in my case. But he man- 
aged to say that. I say it too, very quickly, because 
I know this unnatural magnanimity won’t last. I 
agree with all you have said : it was n’t your fault. 
I hope you won’t be tied to a cripple all your life, or, 
if he has to be a cripple, I hope you will be tied 
to him. There ! I ’ve said it, and it is true, but it 
rather reminds me of holding my breath. Give me a 
kiss, please, and then I ’ll climb swiftly down out of 
this rarefied atmosphere.” 

He kissed her on the mouth, as his right had been, 
and for a moment held her to him in an embrace more 
intimate than he had ever yet claimed from her. 
Edith, it may be remembered, had once seen him kiss 
her, and had pronounced it an anemic salutation. 
But it was not anemic now: his blood was alert and 
virile ; its quality was not inferior to that which, one 
day in the summer, made Hugh seize her wrists, de- 
manding the annulment of the profanation of her 
marriage with Seymour. In both, too, was the same 
fierceness of farewell. 

For a few seconds Seymour held her close to him, 


364 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

and felt her neither shrink from him nor respond. 
Her willing surrender to his right was the utmost she 
could give, and he knew there was nothing else for 
him. 

And then he proceeded to descend from what he 
had called the rarefied atmosphere with the speed of 
a yet-unopened parachute. 

“ Damn Hugh,” he said. “ Yes, damn him. For 
God’s sake, don’t tell him I asked after him, or hoped 
he was getting better. I don’t want him to die, since 
I don’t suppose that would do me any good, nor do 
I want him to be crippled for life, since that also 
would be quite useless after what you have told me. 
But if you said to him that I had asked after him, I 
should sink into the earth for shame. He would 
think it noble and nice of me, and I ’m not noble or 
nice. I should hate to be thought either. His good 
opinion of me would make me choke and retch. I 
should not be able to sleep if I thought Hugh was 
thinking well of me. So hold your tongue.” 

Nadine had never been able quite to keep pace with 
Seymour: she always lagged a little behind, just as 
Hugh lagged so much more behind her. She was 
still gasping from the violence of his seizure of her, 
when he had descended, so to speak, a thousand feet 
or so. Tenderness still clung about her like soaked 
raiment. 

“ Oh, Seymour,” she said. “ I did n’t realize you 
felt like that : I did n’t, really. What are you going 
to do?” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 365 

His clever handsome face wore an uncompromising 
look, but there was humor in his eyes. 

“ I may take to drink,” he said, “ like your angelic 
father. Very likely I shan’t, because I notice that it 
spoils your breakfast if you are intoxicated the even- 
ing before. I shall certainly try to get some more 
jade, and I shan’t marry Antoinette, because she is 
buxom. If I marry, I shall marry some girl who re- 
minds me of asparagus, like you. Not the stout 
French asparagus, of course, but the lean English 
variety. I should not wonder if I came to your wed- 
ding, and wrote an account of it to a ladies’ news- 
paper. I shall say you were looking hideous. I 
have n’t got any other plans, except to go away from 
this place. You are a sort of chucker-out, Nadine, 
at Winston. You chucked out Hugh in the summer, 
and now in the winter you chuck me out. You are a 
vampire, I think. You suck people dry, and then 
you throw them away like orange skins. Don’t argue 
with me : if you argued I should become rude. I was 
rude to Aunt Dodo the other day, when she showed 
me you sleeping on the floor by Hugh’s bed. It was 
a sickening spectacle : I told her so at the time, and I 
tell you so now.” 

Poor complicated Nadine! Her complications had 
been canceled like vulgar fractions, and she was left 
in a state of the most deplorable simplicity. There 
was a numerator, and that was Hugh; there was a 
nought below and that was she. The simplest arith- 
metician could see that the nought “ went into ” the 


3 66 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

numerator an infinite number of times. The result 
was that there was Hugh and nothing else at all. 
Her surrendered reply indicated this: it indicated 
also her knowledge of it. 

“ But it was Hughie there,” she said. 

And then suddenly Seymour’s unexpanded para- 
chute opened, and he floated in liquid air, with the 
azure encompassing him. 

“ Your Hughie,” he said. 

“ Mine,” said Nadine. 

There came an interruption. A footman entered 
with a telegram which he gave to Nadine. And once 
again the ineffable light came into her face, coming 
from below, transfiguring it. 

“ That’s from the cripple,” said Seymour uner- 
ringly. 

She passed him the words Hugh had written that 
morning. They could not have been simpler, nor 
could he, by any expenditure of separate half-pennies 
have said more. 

“ Come back,” he had written, “ important. Good 
news.” 

Seymour got up. 

“ So you are going,” he said. 

Nadine did not seem to hear this. She addressed 
the footman. 

“ Tell them to send round the Napier car at once,” 
she said. 

“ Yes, Miss. But his lordship ordered the Napier 
to meet the shooters — ” 

“ Has it gone?” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


367 


“ No, Miss: it was to pick up Lady Esther — ” 

“ Then I want it at once, instead. I am going to 
start instantly. Tell them to send the car round at 
once. And tell my maid to pack a bag for me, and 
follow with the rest of my luggage.” 

“ Yes, Miss. Where to, shall I say?” 

“ Meering, of course. She will go by train.” 

She turned her unclouded radiance to Seymour 
again, and held out both her hands. 

“ Oh, Seymour,” she said. “ I feel such a brute, 
such a brute. But it ’s my nature to.” 

“ Clearly. Go and put on your hat.” 

“Will you let me hear of you sometimes?” she 
asked. 

“ I don’t see why I should write to you, if you mean 
that,” he said. 

“ Nor do I, now I come to think of it. I made a 
conventional observation. Will you let them know 
if you want lunch, or want to be taken to the sta- 
tion ? ” 

“Yes. Thanks. Good-by. And good luck.” 

She lingered one moment more. 

“ Thank you,” she said. “ And don’t think of me 
without remembering I am sorry.” 

It was still an hour short of sunset when the car 
emerged from the mountainous inland on to the coast. 
The plain and the line of sand-dunes that bordered 
the sea slept under a haze of golden winter sun; a 
few wisps of light cloud hung round the slopes of 
Snowdon, but otherwise the sky was of pale unflecked 


368 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

blue, from rim to rim, and the sea was as untroubled 
as the turquoise vault which it reflected. Though 
January had still a half-dozen of days to run, a hint 
and promise of spring was in the air, and Nadine sat 
in the open car unchilled by its headlong passage. 
They had taken but five hours to come from the mid- 
lands, and they seemed to have passed for her in one 
throb of eager consciousness, so that she looked be- 
wildered to find that the familiar landmarks of home 
were close about her, and that they were already close 
to their journey’s end. Soon they began to climb out 
of the plain again up the outlying flank of hill that 
formed the south end of the bay, and culminated in 
the steep bluff of rock at the top of which she and 
Hugh had sat and quarreled and been reconciled on 
the morning of the gale. To-day no tumult of mad- 
dened water beat at the base of it, nor did thunder 
of surges break into spray and flying foam, and the 
line of reef that ran out from it lay, with its huge 
scattered rocks, as quiet as a herd of sea-beasts graz- 
ing. As they got higher she could see over the sand- 
dunes the beach itself; no ramparts and towers of 
surf or ruins of shattered billows fringed it now; a 
child could have played on that zone of shattering 
and resistless forces. Of its dangers and menaces 
nothing was left; the great gift that it had brought 
to Nadine’s heart alone remained, and flowered there 
like the rose-pink almond blossom in spring. Nature 
had healed where she had hurt, and what had seemed 
but a blind and wanton stroke, had proved to be the 
smiting of the rock, so that the spring burst forth, 
and rivers ran in the dry places. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


369 

The house, gray and welcoming, stood dozing in 
the afternoon sun, and Nadine, suddenly conscious 
that they had arrived without a halt, said a contrite 
word to the chauffeur on the subject of lunch. She 
recollected also that she had sent no reply to Hugh’s 
telegram, and that her arrival would be unexpected. 
Unexpected it certainly was, and Dodo, who had just 
seen Edith off to play golf better than anybody else 
had ever done, jumped up with a scream as she en- 
tered. 

“ But, my darling, is it you?” she cried. “We 
have been expecting to hear from you, but seeing is 
better than hearing. Oh, Nadine, such news! Of 
course you guess it, so I shall not tell you, as it is 
unnecessary, and besides Hughie must do that. He 
has been shaved, and looks quite clean and young 
again. Will you go up to see him at once? Per- 
haps it is equally unnecessary to ask that. Shall I 
come up with you ? My darling, there ’s a third un- 
necessary question. Of course I shall do nothing of 
the kind. Ask the great grenadier if you may go in 
to him without his being told you are coming. 
It might be rather a shock, but personally I be- 
lieve shocks of joy are always good for one. At 
least they have never hurt me. Go upstairs, dear, 
and after an unreasonable time you might ring for 
me. 

The nurse’s room was a dressing-room attached to 
the bedroom where Hugh lay. Nadine went in 
through this, and the door into the room beyond being 
open, she saw that Nurse Bryerley was in there. At 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


370 

this moment she looked up and saw Nadine. She 
turned towards Hugh’s bed. 

“ Here ’s a visitor for you,” she said, and beckoned 
to Nadine to enter. She heard Hugh ask “Who?” 
in a voice that sounded somehow expectant, and she 
went in. In the doorway she passed Nurse Bryerley 
coming out, and the door closed behind her. 

Hugh had raised himself on his elbow in bed, and 
the light in his eyes showed that, though he had asked 
who his visitor was, his heart knew. He neither 
spoke nor moved while Nadine came across the room 
to his bedside. Then in a whisper: 

“ It is Nadine,” he said. 

She knelt down by the bed. 

“ Yes, Hughie. You wanted me,” she said. 

“ I always want you,” he answered. 

For a moment Nadine hid her face in her hands 
without replying. Then she raised it again to him. 

“ Hughie, you have always got me,” she said. 

She drew that beloved head down to hers. 

“ And the news ? ” she said presently. 

“ Oh, that ! ” said Hugh. “ It ’s only that I am 
going to get quite well and strong again. That ’s 
all.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


D ODO was sitting in her room in Jack's house in 
Eaton Square, one morning towards the end of 
May, being moderately busy. She was trying to 
engage in a very intimate conversation with her hus- 
band, and simultaneously to conduct communication 
through the telephone, to smoke a cigarette, and to 
write letters. Considering the complicated nature of 
the proceeding viewed as a whole, she was getting on 
fairly well, but occasionally became a little mixed up 
in her mind, and spoke of intimate things to Jack in 
the determined telephone voice habitually used, or 
puffed cigarette smoke violently into the receiver. 
She had just done this and apologized to the Central 
exchange. 

“ I never knew you could send smoke down a tel- 
ephone, " remarked Jack. 

“ Double one two four Gerrard,” said Dodo. “ In 
these days of modern science you can’t tell what is 
going to happen, and it ’s well to anticipate anything. 
No, you fool, I mean Miss, I said double one two 
four, eleven hundred and twenty four, if that makes 
it simpler. As I was saying, Jack, I don’t see why 
I should n’t stop in town, and have my baby here. 
You can put lots of straw down, like Margery Daw, 
and that always looks so interesting. I should like 
37i 


372 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

to have straw down permanently, why don’t we? 
Darling, how are you, and as Jack ’s going out to 
lunch, and I shall be quite alone, do come round — ” 

Dodo’s face suddenly became seraphically blank. 

“ Oh, are you ? ” she said. “ Then will you tell 
Mrs. Arbuthnot that I hope she will come round to 
lunch with Lady Chester ford. Jack, I said all that 
to Edith’s footman, who always smiles at me. I 
wonder if he will come to lunch instead, and say I 
asked him, which after all is quite true. But Edith 
talks so much like a man, that of course I thought it 
was she, whereas it was he. Yes, I don’t see why I 
should go down to Winston for it. Babies born in 
London are just as healthy as babies born in Stafford- 
shire, and people will drop in more easily afterwards. 
Besides I must go to Nadine’s wedding if I possibly 
can. It would be like reading a story that you know 
quite well is going to end happily, and finding that 
the last chapter of all, which you have been saving 
up for, so to speak, is torn out. I shall have the 
most enormous lump in my throat when I see her and 
Hughie go up to the altar-rails together, and I love 
lumps in the throat. Don’t you ? I don’t mean 
quinzy.” 

“ I ’ll tell you all about the last chapter,” said Jack. 

“ That would be very dear of you, but it would n’t 
be the same thing at all. I want to see it, to see 
Hugh walking as if he had never been smashed into 
ten thousand smithereens, and Nadine, as if she had 
never thought about anybody else since her cradle. 
Oh, by the way, they have settled at last that they 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


373 

would like to go on the yacht for their honeymoon. 
They are both bad sailors, but I suppose there are 
lots of harbors or breakwaters about, and they think 
it is the only plan by which they can be certain of 
being undisturbed. If it is rough, they will find a 
sort of pleasure in being sick into one basin: I really 
think they will. They are in that sort of foolish- 
ness, that whatever they do together will be in the 
Garden of Eden. And they are just forty-five years 
old between them which is exactly what I am all by 
myself. It seems quite a coincidence, though I have 
no idea what it coincides with. So let them have the 
yacht, Jack, as you suggested, and the moon will be 
lovely, honey, and they will be exceedingly unwell ! ” 
Dodo finished her letter, and having telephoned 
enough for the present, came and sat in a chair by her 
husband, in order to continue the intimate conversa- 
tion. 

“ Jack, dear,” she said, “ I never do behave quite 
like anybody else, as you have known, poor wretch, 
for I don’t know how many years. So you must be 
prepared for surprises when I give you that darling 
David. Something ridiculous will happen. There ’ll 
be two or three of them, and the papers will say I 
have had a litter, or I shall die, or David will arrive 
quite unexpectedly like a flash of lightning, and I 
shall say, ‘ Good heavens, David, is it you ? ’ I should 
be exceedingly annoyed if I died — ” 

“ So should I,” said Jack. 

“ I really believe you would. But it would be more 
annoying for me, because however nice the next world 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


374 

is going to be, I have n’t had enough of this. I want 
years and years more, because eternity is there just 
the same, and if I live to be a hundred there won’t be 
anything the less of that. Eternity is safe, so to 
speak: it is invested in the bank, but time is just 
pocket-money, of which you always say I want such a 
lot. Eternity will always be on tap, or else it 
wouldn’t be eternal. But this particular brew will 
come to an end, and I shall be so sorry when the last 
gurgle sounds, and one knows there is no more. It 
could n’t come more nicely, if when it sounded, I had 
given you a son. I can’t imagine any nicer way to 
die. On the other hand, there ’s no reason anywhere 
near as nice for living.” 

Jack put a great hand on her arm. 

“ Dodo, if you talk about dying, I shall be — shall 
be as sick as Hughie and Nadine together,” he said. 

“ Oh, don’t. But you see since we are us — is 
that right ? — there is nothing I can’t say to you, be- 
cause I am only talking to myself. I wonder if I had 
better write a quantity of letters to my son, as some 
woman, I believe a spinster, did. David shall read 
them when he has learned how to read. Oh, I could 
tell him so well how to make love, I know exactly 
what women like a man to be. Luckily, so few men 
really know it, otherwise the world would go round 
much quicker, and we should all be blown off it. 
Oh, Jack, fancy a woman who had never known what 
child-bearing meant attempting to describe it! You 
might as well sit down at your bureau and write 
letters to David.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 375 

“ I could write jolly good ones,” said Jack serenely. 

“ I am sure they would be excellent, but they would 
be nonsense from the other’s point of view. It is so 
holy — so holy ! Once it was n’t holy to me ; it was 
merely a bore. Then, when Nadine was born, it was 
not holy, but very exciting, and hugely delightful. 
But now it is holy.” 

Dodo put up her foot, and kicked Jack’s knee. 

“ It ’s yours, as well as mine,” she said. “ Poor 
dear holy Jack. But I love you; that makes such a 
difference.” 

Jack caught Dodo’s foot in his hand. 

“ Oh, Jack, let go,” she said. “ It ’s bad for me.” 

Instantly his fingers relaxed; and a look of ago- 
nized apology came over his face. Dodo laughed. 

“ Oh, Jack, you silly old woman,” she said. “ It 
is so easy to take you in.” 

But her laughter quickly ceased, and she became 
quite grave again. 

“ I don’t want you to be as sick as Nadine and 
Hughie combined,” she cried, “ but I should like to 
make a few cheerful remarks about dying. We ’ve 
all got to do it, and it does n’t make it any closer to 
talk about it. It ’s a pity we can’t practise it, so as 
to be able to do it nicely, but it ’s one performance 
only, without rehearsals, unless you die daily like St. 
Paul. I doq’t think I shall do it at all solemnly or 
tragically, Jack, for it would not be the least in keep- 
ing with my life to have one tragic scene at the end. 
Nor would it suit the rest of my life to be frightened 
at it. You see if we all held hands and stood in a 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


376 

row and said, ‘ One, two, three, now we ’ll die/ it 
would n’t be at all alarming. And then you see from 
a religious point of view, God has been such a brick 
— is that profane? I don’t think it is — such a 
brick to me all my life, that it seems most unlikely 
that He won’t see me through. Jack, dear, you look 
depressed. I won’t talk about it any more. I shall 
very likely out-live you, and I shall be such a comfort 
to you when you are dying. I shall be exceedingly 
annoyed, just as you said you would be if I did it, but, 
oh, my dear, I shall say au revoir to you with such a 
stout heart, and when I pass through the valley of the 
shadow myself how I shall look for your dear gray 
eyes to welcome me. It will be interesting! And 
now, as they say at the end of sermons, I must get 
ready to go out with Nadine. I promised to go out 
with her for an hour before lunch. Pull me up, and 
give me a chaste salute on my marble brow. What a 
good invention you are! It would be worse than 
going back to the days of hansoms and four-wheelers 
to be without you. Without undue flattery, it 
would ! ” 

Dodo’s slight attack of seriousness evaporated com- 
pletely, and having tried the effect of her hat, which 
comprised, so she said, the entire flora and fauna of 
Brazil, on Jack’s head, put it on her own, and sent a 
message to Nadine that she had been waiting an hour 
and a half. 

“ But Hughie shall not come out with us,” she said, 
“ since he and Nadine don’t pay the smallest attention 
to me, when they are together, and I feel alone in 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 377 

London. Besides, Nadine has to buy things that 
young gentlemen don’t know anything about — and 
here you are at last, my darling Nadine, but I ’m not 
going to take your darling with us, any more than he 
takes you to his haberdasher, or whoever it is sells 
that sort of thing. Don’t look cross, Hughie, because 
Jack ’s going to let you have the yacht, and you and 
Nadine can be unwell to your heart’s content. Go 
and sulk at your club, dear, for an hour, and then 
you come back to lunch, and stop for tea and dinner 
if you like. But the obduracy of your esteemed 
mother-in-law elect on the subject of the drive is quite 
invincible. Dear me, what beautiful language ! ” 
Nadine and her mother did their errands, and as 
only Edith was going to lunch with them, who was 
almost invariably half-an-hour late, but who, if she 
arrived in time, would be quite certain to begin lunch 
without them, they prolonged their outing by a turn 
in the Park. The morning was of that exquisite 
tempered heat that lies midway between the uncertain 
warmth of spring and the fierceness of true midsum- 
mer weather, and following, as it did, on a week 
of rainy days had brought out both crowds and 
flowers. The little green seats and shady alleys were 
full of kaleidoscopic color from hats and parasols and 
summer dresses, and more stable than these, but 
hardly less brilliant, were the clumps of full-flowered 
rhododendrons and beds of blossomings. The dust 
had been laid on the roads, and washed from the 
angled planes, and summer sat in the lap of spring. 
Summer and spring too, as it were, sat side by side 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


378 

in Dodo’s motor, and who could say which was the 
more glorious, the mother in the splendor of her full- 
blown life, or Nadine, that exquisite opening bud, 
still dewy in the morning of her days, no wild-flower, 
but more like an orchid, fragrant and subtle and com- 
plex. All that still remained to her : she would never 
be wild-rose or honeysuckle, in spite of the big simple 
human love which had come to her, and daily sprang 
higher, flame-like. 

To-day neither paid much attention to the crowd 
that contained so many friends. Occasionally Dodo 
blew a sudden gale of kissed finger-tips at some espe- 
cially beloved face, but the smile that never left her 
face, though it did duty for general salutation, was 
really inspired from within. Her daughter’s awaken- 
ing was a deep joy to Dodo. 

“You and Hughie and Jack and I ought to be 
stuffed and put in the South Kensington Museum, 
darling,” she said, “ as curious survivals of absolutely 
happy people, who are getting exceedingly rare. I 
should utter a few words of passionate protest when 
the executioner and the taxidermist arrived, but I 
think I should consent for the good of the nation in 
general.” 

Nadine disagreed altogether. 

“ We are much more useful alive,” she said, “ be- 
cause we ’re infectious. Or would our broad fatuous 
grins be infectious when we were stuffed ? Oh, 
there ’s Seymour, Mamma. Do kiss your hand vio- 
lently, because it wouldn’t be suitable for me to. I 
can only smile regretfully.” 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


379 

“ But you don’t regret,” said Dodo, after giving 
him a perfect volley of kissed finger-tips. 

“ No, but only because I can’t. My will regrets. 
He has sent me a lovely necklace of jade, with a little 
label, ‘ Jade for the jade,’ on it. So I think he must 
feel better, as it ’s a sort of joke. I wrote him quite 
a nice little note, and said how dear it would be of 
him to come to my wedding, if he felt up to it.” 

Dodo giggled. 

“ My dear, that is exactly what I should have done 
at your age,” she said. “ But I think I should have 
kissed my hand to him just now, and people would 
certainly have thought you heartless, if you had, just 
because they have got great wooden hearts them- 
selves, accurately regulated, that pump exactly sixty 
times in a minute, neither more nor less. You do 
feel kindly and warmly to poor Seymour, and you 
trust he is getting over it. About stuffing us, now. 
I ’m not quite sure I should stuff Papa Jack. He ’s 
anxious about me, poor old darling, as if at my age 
I did n’t know how to have a baby properly. I talked 
about dying a little, which upset him, I ’m afraid, 
though it was n’t in the least meant to. My dear, to 
think that in ten days from now you’ll be married! 
Nadine, I do look forward to being a grandmama: 
I want to be lots of grandmamas, if you see what 
I mean. Then there ’ll be Papa Hughie, and Papa 
Jack, and look, there’s Papa Waldenech. I never 
knew he was in town. We must stop a moment: I 
have not seen him since he came uninvited to my ball 
in the autumn, a little bit on. Ah, what a fool I am : 


3 8o DODO’S DAUGHTER 

he meant me not to tell you, so bear in mind that I 
have n’t. Waldenech, my dear, what a surprise ! ” 

They drew up at the curb, and he came to the car- 
rige-door, hat in hand, courteous, distinguished and 
evil. 

“I have just come from Paris,” he said. “ It is 
charming of you to welcome me. Nadine, too. 
Nadine, is your father to be allowed to come to your 
wedding? May I — ” 

Dodo had half-risen to greet him, and he saw the 
lines of her figure. He broke off short. 

“ You are going to be a mother again? ” he said. 

“ Yes, my dear, but you need n’t tell the Albert 
Memorial about it,” said she. “ And of course you 
may come to Nadine’s wedding. I had no notion 
you would be in England.” 

He appeared to pay not the slightest attention to 
this — but looked at her eagerly, hungrily, at those 
wonderful brown eyes, at the still youthful oval of 
her face, at the mouth he had so often kissed. 

“ My God, you are a beautiful woman!” he said. 
“ And you used to be mine ! ” 

Then he turned abruptly, and walked straight away 
from them without another glance. Dodo looked 
after him in silence a moment, frowning and smiling 
together. 

“ Poor old chap : it was a shock to him somehow,” 
she said. “ But he ’ll go back to the Ritz and steady 
himself. How old he has got to look, Nadine.” 

But Nadine had the frown without the smile. 

“ I did n’t like the way he went off,” she said. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 381 

“ He did n’t give another thought to my wedding, 
Mama, after he saw. He looked hungry for you, 
and he looked horrible. He admired you so enor- 
mously. He was thinking of what he had lost and 
what Papa Jack had gained. And I felt frightened 
of him, just as I felt frightened one night when I was 
very little, and he came stumbling into the nursery, 
and wanted to say good-night to me. I remember 
my nurse tried to turn him out, and he looked as if 
he would have murdered her. Poor Daddy is n’t a 
nice man, you know.” 

But Nadine looked more puzzled than vexed. 

Dodo’s frown had quite cleared away. She was 
far too essentially happy to mind little surface dis- 
turbances. 

“ Poor old Daddy,” she said. “ He was startled, 
darling, and when people are startled they look like 
themselves, that is all, and Daddy is n’t quite nice, 
any more than the rest of us are. But it was rather 
sweet of him to want to go to your wedding. I hope 
he will be sober. He will probably want to kiss us 
all in the vestry, all of us except Jack. I shall cer- 
tainly kiss him, if he shows the slightest wish that I 
should do so. But he might be nasty to Jack. Per- 
haps we had better not tell Jack he is here. It might 
make him anxious again, like when I talked about 
death this morning. Oh, Nadine, look at those de- 
licious horses, cantering along, and praising God be- 
cause they feel so strong and young! What a rotten 
seat that man has : oh, of course he has, because he ’s 
Berts. How he fidgets his horse — Berts, dear — ” 


382 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

And Dodo blew a shower of kisses on the end of 
her fingers. 

Nadine’s enjoyment in this liquid air had been sud- 
denly extinguished. She herself hardly knew why, 
but her lowered pleasure she felt to be connected with 
her father. She tried, very sensibly, to get rid of it 
by speech, for the unreal thing when spoken, became 
so fantastically absurd. 

“Was Daddy ever very jealous about you?” she 
asked. 

Dodo recalled her mind from the tragedy of Berts 
riding so badly. 

“ But violently pea-green with it,” she said, “ so 
that sometimes I did n’t know if I could say good- 
morning to the butler in safety. That was in the 
early days, and I am bound to confess that he got 
over it. After that came my turn to be jealous, but 
I never took my turn, for between the particular old 
brandy and Mademoiselle Chose, if you understand, 
poor Daddy became entirely impossible. But for auld 
lang syne I shall certainly kiss him in the vestry after 
your wedding, and he shall sign his name if he feels 
up to it.” 

Dodo’s face recovered all its radiance. 

“ And he was the father who begot you,” she said. 
“How can I ever forget that, you joy of mine? I 
should be a beast if I wanted to. But he did look 
rather wicked just now. I think we had better turn, 
or Edith will have finished lunch and gone away.” 

Waldenech’s appearance did not belie him : he both 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 383 

looked and felt very wicked indeed. The sight of 
Dodo so soon to become the mother of another man’s 
child had caused to break out into hideous activity 
a volcano that had long smoldered under the slag and 
ashes of his drunken and debauched days, and he 
flamed with a jealousy the more passionate because 
it had so long slumbered. He felt confused and be- 
wildered by the violence of this unexpected passion, 
and, as Dodo had said, he felt he must steady him- 
self. He wanted to think clearly and constructively, 
to determine exactly what he must do, and how he 
must do it. At present he knew only of one necessity, 
that, even as he had taken Dodo away from Jack 
years ago, so now he must take Jack away from Dodo. 
The particular old brandy, taken in sufficient quan- 
tities, would clear his head, and enable him to think 
out ways and means. 

He shut himself into his sitting-room at the Ritz, 
and by degrees the monstrous nightmare-like lucidity 
that alcohol brings to heavy drinkers brightened in 
his brain, and he sat there emancipated from all moral 
laws, and thought clearly and connectedly, seeing him- 
self and his desires as the legitimate center of all ex- 
istence ; nothing else and nobody else could be 
reckoned with. His jealousy that had shot flaming 
up, no longer flared and flickered: it shone with a 
steady and tremendous light, a beacon to guide him, 
and show him the way he must follow. What should 
happen to himself he did not care, nor did it enter 
into his calculations: most likely it would be better 
when he had accounted for Jack to account for him- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


384 

self also. That would arrange itself: he would see, 
when the time came, how he felt about it. And the 
time had better be soon, for there was no reason for 
delay. But he pushed away from him a glass which 
he had just refilled: he had drunk himself steady, and 
knew that if he went on he would drink himself 
maudlin and confused again. It would have been 
strange if by this time he did not know the stages, 
even as a man knows the stairs in his own house. 

He sat still a moment longer, rehearsing in his 
mind what he had taken so long to construct. He 
would go to the house in Eaton Square, so that Dodo 
would be there, and he would see her look on what 
he had done. To make the picture complete that 
touch was necessary, though he did not want to hurt 
her. Then he would have finished with them, and 
would finish with himself, instead of waiting for the 
farce of a trial, and the ignominy of what must 
follow. 

The afternoon had already waned, and looking at 
his watch he saw that it was after seven. That was 
a suitable hour to go on his errand, for it was prob- 
able that Jack would be at home now, soon to dress 
for dinner. As he got up to get from his despatch- 
box the revolver that he knew was there, he saw the 
glass of brandy which a little while ago he had pushed 
away from him, still standing there, and from habit 
merely he drank it off. Then he put the weapon, 
completely loaded, into his pocket, and took one more 
look round before leaving the room. Somehow deep 
down in him, and smothered and shadowed, was some 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


38s 

vague repugnance towards what he was going to do, 
and once more, forgetful of his resolution not to 
trespass on the steadiness of nerves the spirit brought 
him, he refilled and emptied his glass. That, he felt 
sure, would soon stifle any conflicting voices within 
him. His plan was actively seated in his brain ; inertia, 
almost, would achieve it. 

He had been indoors all the afternoon, and an in- 
stinct for fresh air and the evening breeze caused him 
to go on foot across the Green Park. The air was 
fresh but coldish, and it or the extra brandy he had 
just taken seemed quickly to harmonize and quiet 
that vague jangle of repugnance that twanged dis- 
cordantly in his mind, and he became reconciled to 
himself again. But the wish not to hurt Dodo be- 
came rather more pronounced in his poor fuddled 
brain. He had to kill Jack, but he hoped she would 
not mind very much: he could make her understand 
surely that he was obliged to do it. He had always 
been devoted to her, even when he most outraged the 
merest decencies of their married life, and this morning 
the sight of her glorious beauty had wakened not 
jealousy only. She was superb in her wonderful 
womanhood : she was more beautiful now than she 
had ever been, and Nadine was not fit to sit beside 
her. 

It was with surprise that he saw he had come to 
the house. A motor was at the door, which stood 
open. On the pavement there was a footman bearing 
a coat and hat, holding a rug in his hand: another, 
bareheaded, stood by the door. Waldenech told him- 


386 DODO’S DAUGHTER 

self that he had come very opportunely, for it was 
clear that they would soon come out. 

He hesitated a moment, swaying a little where he 
stood, not certain whether he should just wait for 
them, or go into the house. Soon he decided to take 
this latter course, for it was possible that Dodo or 
Nadine might be going without Jack, and seeing him 
standing there would ask him what he wanted. That 
risked his whole plan: they might suspect something, 
and with one hand in his coat pocket, where his 
fingers grasped the thing he had brought with him, 
he went up the three steps that led to the front door. 

“ Is Lord Chesterford in?” he asked. 

“Yes, sir. But his Lordship is just going out,” 
said the man. 

“ Please tell him that Prince Waldenech would 
like to speak to him. I shall not detain his Lordship 
more than a moment ! ” 

Dodo and her husband had dined early, for they 
were going to the opera which began at eight, and at 
this moment the dining-room door, which opened on 
to the back of the hall opposite the staircase, was 
thrown open, and Waldenech heard Dodo’s voice. 

“ Come on, Jack,” she said, “ or we shall miss the 
overture which is the best part, and you will say it 
is my fault.” 

She came quickly round the corner, resplendent 
and jeweled, and saw his figure with its back to the 
light that came in through the open door, so that for 
half-a-second she did not recognize him. Simultane- 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


387 

ously, Jack came out of the dining-room just behind 
her. As he came out he turned up the electric light 
in the hall which had not been lit, and she saw Walde- 
nech’s face. And at the moment he took out of 
his pocket what his right hand was fingering. 

“ Stand aside, Dodo,” he said rather thickly. “ It 
is not for you.” 

Not more than half-a-dozen paces separated them, 
and for answer Dodo walked straight up to him, with 
arms outstretched so that he could not pass her, 
screening Jack. She was menacing as a Greek fury, 
beautiful as the dawn, dominant as the sun. 

" You coward and murderer,” she said. “ Give 
me that.” 

For one half-second he stood nerveless and irreso- 
lute, his poor sodden wits startled into sobriety by 
the power and glory of her, and without a moment’s 
hesitation she seized the revolver that was pointed 
straight at her, and tore it from his hand. By a 
miracle of good luck it did not go off. 

“ Out of the house,” she cried, “ for I swear to 
you that in another second I will shoot you like 
a dog. Did you think you would frighten me? 
Frighten me! you drunken brute.” 

She stood there like some splendid wild animal at 
bay, absolutely fearless and irresistible. Without a 
single word, he turned, and shuffled out into the street 
again. 

“ Shut the door,” said Dodo to the footman. 

Then suddenly and unmistakably she felt the life 
within her stir, and a start of blinding pain shot 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 


388 

through her. So short had been the whole scene that 
Jack hurrying after her had only just reached her 
side, when she dropped the revolver, and laid her 
arms on his shoulders, leaning on him with all her 
weight. 

“ Jack, my time has come,” she said. “ Oh, glory 
to God, my dear ! ” 

Just as dawn began to brighten in the sky, Dodo’s 
baby was born, and soon made a lusty announcement 
that he lived. Presently Jack was admitted for a 
moment just to see his son, and then went out again 
to wait. It was but a couple of hours afterwards 
that he was again sent for by a well-pleased nurse. 

“ I never saw such vitality,” said this excellent 
woman. “ It ’s like what they tell about the gipsies.” 

Dodo was lying propped up in bed, and her baby 
was at her breast. She gave Jack a brilliant smile 
of welcome. 

“ Oh, Jack, you and David and I ! ” she said. 
“Was there ever such a family? I may talk to you 
for five minutes, and then David and I are going to 
sleep. But about last night. I don’t know how 
much the servants saw, or what they know, but 
Waldenech came here to shoot you. He was drunk, 
poor wretch, he couldn’t face me for a moment. It 
was such a deplorable failure that I feel sure he won’t 
try it again, but I should be happier if he left Eng- 
land. See your solicitor about it, have him threat- 
ened if he doesn’t go. Do that this morning, dear, 
and when I wake be able to tell me he has gone. 


DODO’S DAUGHTER 389 

And now, oh, you and David and I! I told you I 
should behave in some unusual manner, but I did n’t 
think Waldenech would be concerned in it. Jack, 
kiss the top of David’s adorable head, but don’t dis- 
turb him. And then, my dearest, kiss me, and I shall 
instantly go to sleep. And neither Waldenech nor I 
will be able to go to Nadine’s wedding, but my reason 
for not going is much the nicest. Isn’t it, oh my 
David? ” 

About ten o’clock Jack went out to do as Dodo had 
bidden him, and preferring to walk, crossed the 
Green Park, and went through the arcade fronting 
the Ritz Hotel. He had forgotten to ask Dodo 
where Waldenech was staying, but fancied that when 
he was in England last winter, he had stopped here. 
So he went through the revolving-door, and into the 
Bureau. 

“ Is Prince Waldenech stopping here?” he asked. 

The clerk looked down to consult the register of 
guests before he answered: 

“ His Serene Highness left for Paris this morning.” 


THE END 


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